From BA we caught a 19hr bus ride to Puerto Madryn in Patagonia, its a cute little town (very touristy), right next to the beach. We walked down to the seafront on our first day and there were 10 plus whales swimming about 20mt from the shore - it was amazing! We were very surprised, as you can imagine!
After hiring a car (it worked out cheaper than a tour, honest) we set off 100km down the road to the National Park of Punta Tombo, where millions of Magallenic Penguins come each year from Antartica to breed. It was the beginning of the season, so we saw more thousands than millions, but it was still incredible. The penguins were literally all around our feet (they didn´t HAVE to be - they could have wandered off, but I think they liked the attention!), hiding under bushes and in their little mud holes (who knew penguins lived like that!?) - what was completely strange was that Punta Tombo was completely dry, no snow or ice in sight and the weather was scorcing sunshine - no sure about you, but I never really expected to see wild penguins in basically a field (literally alongside sheep!).
The pinguinos (spanish - and such a better name, don´t you agree?) were unbelievably cute, waddling along, chasing one another all around. The ones in the water (not very many strangely), were hilarious - as they were going in from the beach they looked really scared every time a wave came and it literally took them about 15 mins to actually get through the surf!
The penguins were obviously great, the only negative thing I have to say is that there were soooooooooo many people allowed into the park that it was a bit much - obviously the penguins could wander off if they wanted to (not sure why they didn´t) - but having groups of 10 school kids huddled around them wasn´t exactly nice to watch.
From Tombo we drove in our little Clio to Gaiman, which is one of the old Welsh Settlements in the area (including Puerto Madryn, where we are staying). It was very weird going to a hotel and having cakes, sarnies, scones, jam and tea with milk in the middle of Patagonia! We actually managed to devour the whole lot too....and there were a lot of cakes!
