My wonderful wildlife and Welsh extravaganza in Puerto Madryn!!

My last posts I wrote whilst in Rio Gallegos. This was the stop off point between Ushuaia and Puerto Madryn for me. I really would like to be able to tell you that it was a fun and exciting place, but I really can't. Even Lonely Planet doesn't give you any recommendations for things to do there. It has three listings for accommodation and food and that's it. I did look at TripAdvisor and found there was an art gallery, but it was closed when I went there. So there's not a lot more I can say about it! Oh, I did find a bug spray that said it killed Chinches so I bought a can and sprayed everything again. I about killed myself in the process inhaling the fumes and the problem now is that I smell like old ladies. Thank heavens I brought Febreze with me on this trip!

My bus from Rio Gallegos left at 8pm at night and in a place where there is nothing to do, filling the 10 hours from checkout to the bus journey was a bit of a challenge! After visiting two coffee shops I was starting to get palpitations as I'd also had a coffee with breakfast! So I went for a wander along the beach, sat in the town square for a bit, had a very slow lunch and took a gentle meander the 2.5km up to the bus station. This got me to 5pm and then thankfully my book got me the rest of the way!

The bus journey wasn't that bad really. We got fed, with what was like really terrible airline food. 

But it was edible and filled a hole. For some bizarre reason, we all had to get off the bus the stop before mine and transfer to a new bus, which was also fine and I arrived in the lovely warm and sunny Puerto Madryn around 12.30pm. I'd originally taken the bus rather than flown because I wanted to see the countryside. Then of course it was a night bus so I didn't see anything anyway! It got light around 7.30-8am and until we arrived in Puerto Madryn, the landscape didn't really change. It was this the whole way!

One thing that did amaze me was the amount of litter along the side of the road. Single use plastics have an awful lot to answer for, as do glass bottles, aluminium cans and pretty much anything else that is disposable.

My hostel in Puerto Madryn, Chepatagonia, was lovely and one great thing was that I could book my tours through them. As such, I decided to hire a bike the next day, do a tour of Peninsula Valdes the day after that, which was my main reason for coming to this bit of Argentina and then I would decide on whether to snorkel with sea lions at a later date.

The next morning, after chatting with my parents, I went to see Gabriel about hiring a bike. He checked where I wanted to go and then advised me that a big chunk of the way would be on gravel roads, and that the route was a bit hilly. I figured I'd give it a shot and could always head back if it got too much. I hadn't been going far when I stumbled across these caves. They were used by the Welsh people who had emigrated to here on their arrival, although they weren't here that long as there was no fresh water in Puerto Madryn so they had go further inland to find it.

The gravel road started a bit later and I must admit, it did feel at times like my teeth were going to be rattled out of my head, but I made it to the sea lions in about an hour. They were amazing! Incredibly smelly and noisy but fascinating to watch!

The bike ride back was much less fun. By this point the wind had picked up and was against me. Cycling on gravel roads is permanent effort as you can't really freewheel. Eventually, after having to get off and walk a few times, I made it back onto the tarmac road but it was sadly no easier! I was in first gear cycling along a flat road and it was really hard work, every time I tried to go into a higher gear, the effort of cycling against the wind was too much and I had to drop back to first again! I could have cried when it came to the downhill section and I was still having to pedal to get myself to move!

Anyway, fortunately, the next day I was in a car going to Peninsula Valdés. Fernanda, one of my dorm room buddies and I along with Helene from another hostel took the trip that was led by our guide Joan.

There was an opportunity to go to the visitor centre for the area on the way to Punta Norte but we decided to go straight there having heard there'd been orcas in the area the day before. Thank heavens we did! We managed to see orcas, and not only see them swimming, we actually saw one attacking sea lions on the shore! It was truly amazing! They were only in the area for around 15-20 minutes so if we'd gone to the visitor centre first...

From there we went round to Caleta Valdés where there were penguins!

When we got to the penguins I was amazed as we were able to get really close to them; it was incredible. They were so cute and funny. They're in the process of moulting before they migrate and some were much further along the process than others! 

I remember when I was in South Africa and the Jackass penguins (these are Magellanic) were moulting, the ranger there said they get almost embarrassed by their appearance and stop being extroverted and playful and become quite sombre when they're losing their feathers. 

From there, we then went round to where we saw armadillos! They were fast! And funny!

This was a lovely area to see birds too. 

And after a bite to eat, we went down to see the elephant seals. These are the females, with the males having already migrated. 

They have such sweet faces.

Throughout the journey there were guanacos everywhere. They're a bit like deer really in that you have to watch out for them running across the road - as beautifully demonstrated here!

We also saw maras, which are actually rodents.

Patagonian emus (I think also called rhea...)

And Elegant Crested Tinamou

After here we went to Punta Pyramides which was a beautiful beach and headland 

and then onto the visitor centre which was super interesting all about the history of the area and the flora and fauna here and where I managed to get another stamp in my passport!

On our return to Puerto Madryn, Fernanda, Helene and I went for a beer which rounded the day of beautifully! 

The next day I decided to go to Gaiman. Gaiman is one of the towns that was settled by Welsh people in the 1800s. It involved taking a bus from Puerto Madryn to Trelew, then another bus from Trelew to Gaiman. Whilst in Trelew, I took the opportunity to go to the Paleontological museum. 

It was fascinating and really challenged my Spanish as understandably there was very little written in English! However, they had great displays, 

and let's face it, anywhere showing a documentary with David Attenborough in it has my vote!

On arrival in Gaiman, I walked across a bridge into the main part (equivalent to the Severn?) 

and headed to the tourist office for info on what to do in the area. 

They were really helpful and before long I was headed to the tunnel for the train service that used to run in this area

To a viewpoint of the town

And to the regional museum, which is housed in the former train station, the train line having stopped years ago.

The guy in the museum was fascinating to talk to and spoke English, Spanish and Welsh, of course! Welsh is still spoken by a lot of people in this area although with time, sadly he told me that the Welsh is slowly diminishing, despite still being taught in the schools. 

The museum had some amazing old photos and documents and I loved this plan of the region where people had settled. 

People took on the Spanish versions of their names and so if you look closely you'll see where William has become Guillermo, John is now Juan, Arthur is Arturo etc.! 

From there, I had to go and have a Welsh Tea and so headed to Ty Gwyn, for an amazing afternoon tea. There were 6 - yes 6! - pieces of cake! And a proper cup of tea. First cup I've had out here actually. And it was pretty good I'll tell you!

And though I gave it my best, I could only manage 4 of the pieces of cake, but I took the other two with me! And then from there headed back to Puerto Madryn as that night Joan and his wife Brenda had invited me out for drinks and food so that Brenda, who is studying for her IELTS could chat in English! It was lovely to be invited out by local people. In hostels we mix with people from all over the word but rarely get to meet local people.

Because of the bus times, I was running very late to get back to Puerto Madryn, and so when I arrived back I hurried back to the hostel and unfortunately tripped up and went flying! Properly hurt my arm (the lump)

And hip (no photo as it would include my butt and I'm not putting a picture of that on the web!). The worst bit was I'd totally mangled my leftover cake in the process too! For a while I nearly cried off drinks with Joan and Brenda, but thankfully I didn't. I had a hot shower to soothe my aches and freshen myself up and went out. Thank goodness that I did, we had a lovely evening!

The next day, I'd been hoping to snorkel with sea lions but unfortunately the wind was northerly which means it's on bumpy so get to see them, but I'm not sure my aching body could have managed it anyway. It properly knocked me six falling over and that day I just took as a mental health day and wrote my journal and did some colouring and generally had the equivalent of a duvet day.

Which then took me to Sunday and my 16.5 hour bus journey to Mar del Plata where I am just for tonight. Luckily I made it onto the bus. I nearly missed it as I was waiting for a Transportadora Paagonica bus but it turns out I was on a Don Otto bus! I guess they were running the service and thankfully were running late as I didn't discover this until 17:20 and my bus had been due to leave at 17:05 but eventually left at 17:30! At £65 a ticket, that would have been an expensive missed bus! And I wouldn't have seen this amazing sunset.

Oh go on then, here's one final cute penguin shot...😊