Hosteria Las Maras Puerto Madryn

I dag har jeg set hvaler og jeg oensker mig en pingvin i julegave :) Det maa vist vaere en af hoejdepunkterne indtil videre! - at sidde i en lille baad mens en "lille" babyhval svoemmer ind under baaden. At vaere omringet af hvaler til alle sider.. FANTASTISK! <br><br ...

... animals!<br>Early start on Wednesday, well early for us nowadays, 8am at the dive shop:) Out on the boat by 0900 and in the water by 0930. Spent a good 50 minutes in the water with about 30 sealions, about 10 or 15 at a time, one of the best things I have done for sure. Ang was there too and it was ruddy freezing, even with double layer wetsuits on it was cold, about 10 degrees I think. The sealions were really inquisitive, coming ...

... north of Puerto Madryn and due to the beach dropping quickly away into the water the whales swim within 7 to 15m of the beach; you get to stand on dry land and watch, close up, 15m whales cruising the beach front. Of course the purpose of the trip was to get on a boat and see these animals in their environment. With a little left over wind from the previous day making the water still quite choppy (poor Ali bearing the brunt of the ...

... to Puerto Madryn (guess what, managed to get lost in Trelew a third time, signposts are not a strong suit of the Argentinian road system) for our last night before heading off to our next stop El Calafate (another last minute decision but one of the best we´ve made as you´ll see in the next blog). Overall, we had a great time in Puerto Madryn and totally got in touch with inner David Attenborough´s - maybe have to go back sometime to see the Southern Right whales though!!!

... answer any question we had. They looked very cute waddling up and down the beach and jumping off rocks to get into the water. We were hoping to go snorkelling with some sea lions while we were here, but for 400 pesos, it was just a bit out of our budget. So now we are on to Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina and home of Tango dancing, can't wait.

... 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 couldn´t 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 ...

... doing a countdown cinco, quatro, tres . . . . ). Lots of kissing, hugging and dancing followed, as well as silly hats being handed out to everyone. And a nice touch at the end, perhaps to make Lorraine and I feel at home, a fight broke out and the waiters literally dragged some bloke out and threw him onto the street - Its not New Years Eve without at least 1 fight!!. We eventually left just after 1:30am, and made a way back through packed streets ...

... paar Ausnahmen traege in der Sonne am Strand herum und geniessen das herrliche Wetter. Unser naechster Stopp sind die magellanischen Pinguine. Die sind nur etwa 45cm klein und wirklich niedlich. Ein paar sind auch nur etwa 2m von uns entfernt und sogar ein Babypinguin schaut aus einem Erdloch zu uns heraus, die Papa gebaut hat. Sie stoeren sich ueberhaupt nicht an den menschlichen Besuchern und so koennen wir ein paar nette Bilder machen. Es geht zum letzten Stopp, den ...

... Aires. <br><br>At Sea Wednesday 24th January 2007<br><br>Throughout the night we continued our direct southwesterly course towards Argentina, passing off the major port of Santos around 0300. Santos serves as the port for Sao Paul, and as a result is one of Brazil's busiest ports. Our position at noon was 27° 37.5 south and 046° 37.3<br>west. For the remainder of the day we continued on this course, paralleling the Brazilian coastline at a distance of around 60 ...