I´m really tempted to make a terrible pun here

Trip Start Aug 31, 2008
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36
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Trip End Feb 02, 2009


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Where I stayed
El Dorado
(Puerto Madryn hotels)

Flag of Argentina  ,
Saturday, November 8, 2008

On account of how Puerto Madryn was settled by a boatload (150, give or take) of Welsh immigrants in the 1860s (I guess there wasn´t much to do at home), and how there´s a large colony of Southern right whales around these parts, I was going to make some silly joke about whalers from Wales, but I think I´ll spare you guys. Puerto Madryn is a beautiful seaside tourist resort on one end, aluminum and fish refineries on the other (I didn´t spend much time on that side for some reason.) Rather expensive, and about 16-18 hours away from Buenos Aires, which means that we got to take an overnight bus, one of our favorite activities. This time, we quit scrimping and saving for once, and bought the second highest class of bus ticket to see how the other half lives. Now, to be fair, any class of long distance bus in South America is pure luxury in comparison to modern U.S. airline service. Our overnight bus to Puerto Madryn included:
1. a promotional video for Andesmar (the bus company) focused on extreme sports and their obvious relation to quality public transportation. Like watching a looped Mountain Dew commercial.
2. BingoAndesMar! Bingo in South America takes forever, because you have to fill up your entire bingo card. Games are often conducted on the nicer buses. When you win BingoAndesMar, you win a nice bottle of Mendoza Malbec, so pay attention.
3. On-board movie: Dirty Harry (Harry el Sucio) in English. Nathan and I were pretty pleased with our luck here.
4. Well-balanced dinner of ham sandwich on white bread, ham sandwich on dinner roll, rice, mashed potatoes, and chicken stuffed with ham of course. An enormous portion of tapioca followed. This is not considered a strange meal in Argentina. They love some ham down here.
5. Leg room no first class airline could hope to match.
Good thing too, cause those tickets were about 4 days´ normal budget. Sheesh.

But back to Puerto Madryn. There´s no Welsh people living there now, save for a grandmother or two, but for four or five generations, there was a little pocket of Welsh speaking settlers tucked away down here in the Patagonian (that´s right, we´re finally in Patagonia) desert. They left their mark in the form of a few chapels and the decidedly British local habit of cultivating rose gardens. Also the names of the streets, Sir Love Jones and such. A wonderful museum about the unique marine life in the area is a hike up the coastal boulevard, but there´s not much better to do here than enjoy the bizaarely clear Atlantic ocean. From here, we decided to move on to a more isolated town with only 400 permanent residents on the Valdes Peninsula, to engage in some wildlife watching.

Look! pictures!! Puerto Madryn pictures!
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