So i arrived in Puerto Madryn around 7.40am and seemed to be the only gringo on the bus. Determined to save money (having spent too much previously on beer) I decided to walk to the hostel. By the time i managed the 6 blocks between the station and hostel it was 7.55am. At check in I was asked if i wanted to go to Peninsula Valdes that day on the wildlife tour - obviously i said yes and then i found out that it left at 8am!! I had time to briefly say hello to Will, an englishman i recognised from the hostel in Cordoba, once re-introduced i rather jumped onto the minibus rather bleary eyed and smelly with whatever i thought i needed in the 5 minutes i had to get ready.

The journey to the peninsula was just over an hour but any hope i had of catching some more sleep were soon shattered by the tour guide, microphone and sound system installed in the van. Still, the tour guide, Daniel, was very informative and told us about everything we went past. We learnt about the Welsh heritage of the town as the miners came across in 1850 and about the economy of the place these days. When we arrived at the park boundary we all had to pay a fee and get our tickets then we entered the small information centre. In the distance we could see some guanco`s which entertained me for a while but there wasn`t much in the centre apart from a whale skeleton which was pretty cool.

Things soon got a bit more exciting though when Daniel came in and asked if i liked snakes, to which i replied 'yes'. He guided me outside and underneath our van was a small snake, turns out to be the only poisonous snake in Patagonia - the wildlife spotting had begun!

The 8 of us on the tour that day loaded back up onto the minibus and headed to Punto Norte (on the North of the island). Here there was a large colony of sea lions with all their baby pups, they spread for a kilometre or so down the length of the beach. The noises they made were so weird, it was a cross between a bark, a snore, and a squeal but it was a pretty cool sight. Especially watching the big males square up to each other to defend their patch of beach and any females in the vicinity. I also had one eye on the ocean as the area is famous for killer whales. In fact it is the only place in the world where the killer whales (or orcas as they should be called because they actually a type of dolphin and not whale - yeh im geeky and what!) breach onto the land to hunt sea lions. There are about 10 orcas in the world that have been seeing practicing this behaviour and all of it has been recorded on this one beach. Unfortunately, free willy didn`t appear though so we got back on the bus and headed south.

At the next stop we tried to some elephant seals. The guys are monsters they are around 5m long and weigh 300kg!! We could see these units dotting the beaches, but where we got off to spot them they were about 75m away so we couldn't appreciate the scale of them properly and as they were rather dozy it didn't seem like they were going to come close any time soon so got back in the bus and went off to find some penguinos!

There was a small colony of magellanic penguins littering the beach and cliff up to the car park. These guys were not scared of people at all and stood about 1.5m away posing away. There was only about 25 of the little fellas but they were pretty cool. Once we were suitably impressed we got back in the bus and headed out of the park.

When we got back tp Puerto Madryn I dragged Will around the town in search of Welsh cakes. I knew it was a Welsh settlement and there was a statue on the beachfront about the Welsh settlers, but after an hour and a half of searching i couldn't find Welsh cakes, well not proper ones. There were a couple of cakes that claimed to be Welsh cakes but they weren't like the ones i know (and they didn`t look anywhere near as tasty as Mamgu`s!!). Once defeated we stopped for a beer or two and then entered the nearest restaurant that served food.

Here our luck changed as it turned out to be an all you can eat restaurant with all sorts of food and it was all delicous. In the corner of the restaurant there was an asado (BBQ) which was all glazed in. Inside this smoke room was a bearded man that must be close to death because the room was full of smoke, i mean full of smoke and in the 2 hours we were there eating the meat he hadn´t been out once and there were no windows. I assume there was a chimney at the top but judging by the thickness of the smoke it must have been blocked if there was one - he definately needs to get a healthier job! Suitably stuffed we wondered back to the hostel, grabbed a beer and turned in for the night.

Next morning was another early one as 3 of us were picked up by Daniel in his car this time to go Punto Tumbo and see the 500,000 penguins there. On the way we stopped to pick up Dane (Canadian who i had also met in BA) and it was then that the 3 of us were disapointed to hear that Dane had signed up for dolphin watching. We were disaspointed because it meant we could no longer go to Gaimen, the picturesque Welsh settlement but instead had to sit next to a port for 2 hours and wait for Dane to return. The port itself was empty with only one small shop nearby and the beach itself stunk of rotten fish so we pulled up a seat in the shop and bought some lunch for later in the day. Once Dane had returned we got back in the car and arrived at Punto Tumbo around midday. We went into the visiter centre once more and ate our lunch outside before Daniel took us into the park itself.

On the way some guancos (like llamas) were blocking the path so we waited for them to move on. Daniel told us about the foxes, and birds that hunt the penguins. One type of bird (i can`t remember the name) has a wingspan of 2 metres and crashed its wings into the neck of the penguin knocking it over and then before the penguin has chance to get up again it sticks its beak up the penguins rear end and rips the guts out! We didn´t get to see this behaviour either but everytime the bird whizzed past we would all hold our breath and sort of semi-hope for a collision with a penguin.

The penguins themselves were everywhere, the colonly stretched out over a few kilometers and went back for 1 kilometre. The penguins pair up, usually for life and return to this beach to mate and give birth. The babies we saw were about 2 months old and just starting to malt their baby fur for their adult waxy feathers instead. The penguins dig a hole each, usually under a small bush for shade and then defend their little nest/hole vicicously. They don`t help their neighbours at all and we saw one or two rather bloody penguins that had clearly been territorial battles. We had around 4 hours with the penguins and then started the 2 hour journey back to Puerto Madryn.

Once returned i got some food in town and caught the 7pm bus to Rio Gallegos way down south. The journey itself was 21 hours and i was sat next to 3 middle aged Argentinian women that couldn't speak English but would insist on trying to talk to me anyway with my limited Spanish and the odd help from some people nearby we just about managed some small talk over the course of the day. WHen i arrived in Rio Gallegos i had a 5 hour wait for the bus to El Calafate. To kill the 5 hours i got a taxi to the internet cafe in town and set up camp for a while. The bus from Rio Gallegos left at 8.30pm and got into El Calafate at 12.30am - bring on the glaciers.