Los Tulipanes Puerto Madryn

... br><br>First stop was to the Elephant sea lion colony on a private beach.  The mothers and fathers have left to fill their stomachs to get ready for their next breeding season.  Unlike the Sea Lion mothers who have their pups for over a year, the mothers here only care for their young for a month whilst they fatten them up leaving them absolutely paralyzed with milk on the beach.  They don't even say goodbye or leave a note, nope they are off along with ...

... The penguins are only just arriving so there was only a few thousand rather than two hundred thousand but it was a nice day out nonetheless.<br><br>On our last day, we went swimming with the sea lions and also had a taste of scuba diving for the first time. In chilly waters (13 degrees) and in very thick wet suits, we swam with over 30 sea lions as they zoomed over, beside and under us. They would copy your movements ...

... ignored and got straight down to the lower deck. Boat still moving and his big plates of meat getting soaked Gary was reprimanded, as politely as the term allows, by Orlando.<br>We finally found a good spot for wales and, being informed that if the wales get aggitated they may ram the boat, we set about aggitating them. It worked. We got hit by one and the boat did rock. We were also privvy to some wales spraying, splashing and mating. We were told how the female male is the ...

... by choice. That said, neither of us are excursion types, we´d rather explore places on our own agenda, so after much humming and hawing we decided to hire a car for a few days instead of taking an excursion (worked out cheaper overall in the end too). Can I just say though, this decision wasn´t taken lightly. Argentinians are MENTAL drivers, and Bri doesnt drive so it was left up to me do the driving, something I´d never done abroad before. Thought I´d better ...

... were walking around everywhere:D Crossing the path right in front of you, at cm´s distance:D There were actually signs saying ´give way to penguins´! And wow, you could see them by the sea! Millions! Al sitting and lying and swimming:D It was absolutely amazing:D Wow, that´s a lot of smileys I´m using! However, it was so great! Very quiet aswell, and absolutely breath taking! I had never seen so many penguins before, leave alone in their ...

... et désertique où vivent un multitude d'animaux à l'état sauvage. Nous faisons un arrêt à Punta Pyramides où nous observons une colonie de loups marins ("lobos marinos" en espagnol, je ne suis pas sûr de ma traduction française assez litérale) qui se prélassent sur des rochers au bord de l'eau. Nous nous remettons en route et traversons le village de Punta Pyramides où certaines excursions s'arrêtent pour faire un tour en bateau moyennant une centaine de pesos supplémentaires ...

... another traveler I met in BA, Alexis. We all hopped a bus to Maydryn. It was very nice to travel on a bus with people you know and trust. You don't have to watch over your things like a hawk. Since you know the person you're sitting next to the personal space area changes a bit too. We arrived Sunday morning early. After a little trouble getting a taxi we arrived at the hostel. We arrived too early to ...

... looking round that area. A few blocks from San Telmo is the district of Puerto Madero, which is the old Docklands area and has been re-generated in the past few years, and is now a fashionable area with Shops, Bars, Hotels and Apartments - There is a lot of re-generation taking place in Buenos Aires at the moment (Somewhere for Sophie to think about after University) and the new architecture really fits in well with the old. Its a nice area to walk ...

... penguins so we had a guide and a car...better than a bus full of tourists. We headed to Rawson first to go on a boat to see some dolphins. We saw a few but not so many and I´ve seen dolphins many times now I just wanted to see penguins. The journey down to Punto Tom is quite a way away, we did about 400kms round trip. There is a colony of penguins down here of just short of a million birds. THey live in a kinda of desert where ...

... the way around the ship, but not on one level. I did make one lap (1/3 mile) on the promenade deck, but just did not feel like fighting the stairs with my weary legs. We checked out the ship a little, but most of the day was spent in a relaxation mode. After an enjoyable dinner together we went to the theater and enjoyed the evening show which was the first of four production shows that will be put on during the voyage. It was a good show put on by an energetic bunch of ...