Estancia Rincon Chico Puerto Madryn

... Buenos Aires. Not much to do in Puerto Madryn when its cold. Ive decided instead of taking a bus south to Ushuaia (where I plan to ski) I will take a bus north to Buenos Aires and fly to Ushuaia. Ushuaia is a very hard place to get to because its so freaking far so I will fly and make it easy. Plus Im not ready to say good bye to my friends Colin, Michelle and Brian.

We decide to rent some bikes and ...

... them to lye on the dea bed and use the rough sand to exfoliate the dead skin they had grown throughout the year. We took some pictures then headed through the National Park, which was underwhelming to be honest. It basically housed some sheep and a Wale Museum. The wale museum was worth a look, with a full sized real wale skeleton...and an Elphick with his bobble (from his bobble hat) in his coffee pondering why there was minimum return on coffee from the upturned cup. Prat!

Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, Argentina jrolfe

I debarked my bus at Rio Gallegos, and forgot to change my watch upwards 1 hr. at the Argentina-Chile border. Well, I was sitting in the restaurant, I had just finished my hamburger, and working on my beer, when I saw a bus that looked like mine pull up. Only it ...

... to see what it was like and although it is a very typical Argentinian town there was traces of its welsh heritage everywhere from the Ysgol (school) With Croeso written across it to the welsh flags and souvenir shops and of course Welsh Tea Rooms! We couldn't go all that way without visiting one so we went into the coziest one we could find. The lady running it spoke Spanish and English and some Welsh, all with a North Walian accent. It ...

26/2/09-29/2/09 And so it was three buses and 30hrs later that we arrived in Puerto Madryn. The only reason you come here is to do some nature watching, so that's what we did. It is best known for Wales, but we were off season, and you can see whales in Newcastle. What we had come to see were the penguins. We booked our tour from the hostel ...

... and in fact recommended a light lunch. So having hardly eaten all day I was full of excitement and anticipation at the prospect of some decent cake. If only I had known. Sadly the teahouse we wanted to visit was closed that day, but resigned ourselves to the first Welsh tea house. Well surely you couldnīt go wrong this I hear you say! However it was clearly a tourist attraction set up for coach parties as the menu was full of soft drinks ...

... some Argentinean steak! Also, there is a nice garden area with a hammock and lounge chairs to relax in and chill out. Our rooms are a little different story. The first night we had to stay in a room with a bunk bed. Yippee. At first, neither of us wanted the top bunk, but when it came down to it...we both did. Anyway, I let Brian have it as I figured what goes up, must come down. The room was only as wide as the bed (6 feet) and poor Brian couldn't even stretch out in at ...

... but does feel like any such area that seem to be the fashion in most modern cities these days. Monday: We took the Subway over to Recoleta and perhaps the most famous tourist attraction in Buenos Aires The Cementerio La Recoleta, it is where the rich bury their dead and where perhaps Buenos Aires most famous daughter was finally laid to rest (More on that later!!). Its an amazing place, and not like any cemetary you are likely to see in England. The tombs ...

... 29.12.2008 Wir werden gegen 8.00 Uhr fuer die Tagestour abgeholt. Gegen 10.00 Uhr kommen wir auf der Halbinsel an. Hier nehmen wir ein Boot fuer etwa 20 Personen, in der Hoffnung Wale zu sehen. Fuer etwa 1,5 Stunden sind wir auf dem Wasser, aber leider haben wir kein Glueck und sehen keine Wale...schnief... Die Saison geht auch nur bis Mitte Dezember, aber gestern noch wurde ein Wal gesehen. Zurueck an Land geht es dann zu den Seeelefanten. Die liegen bis auf ...

... It`s so funny the things you do when traveling...I hopped in a car with two girls I had just met and let someone with an expired driver`s license drive me two and a half hours! But, it was amazing! This park is home to hundreds of thousands of penguins. And, this is the season when their eggs are hatching! So, we got to see penguins sitting on their eggs and some baby penguins. It was really spectacular. Of course we got really excited when we ...