I have been to Argentina before. This time I am joining a cruise ship from Buenos Aires to Antarctica. My flight was over 13 hours and arrived at 8 am. I changed some money as I knew I needed pesos for the bus ticket or sube as the locals call it. It's a travel card you top up to use their buses or colectivos. I got my sube from a kiosk at the airport and headed for the bus stop. The actual fare was only 45pesos and after 91 stops I arrived into Plaza de Mayo and spent the next hour to find the port and my ship. It was a super hot day and finally boarded the norwegian star.
The first port of call was Puerto Madryn. A coastal town with a Welsh twist. It was founded by a Welsh man who sailed to this part of Argentina on the Mimosa. Of course like typical men, he claimed the land and named it Puerto Madryn. There are some semblance of Welsh culture dotted about the area but mainly inland and are only farm houses. This place however has the largest Welsh community outside of Wales.
I walked to the landing site and explored the national park trying to spot penguins. It took me an hour but it was a lovely walk along the waterfront. The beach was huge and clean and they had lifeguards. I saw furry little creatures on my walk and a model being photographed in her bikini looking very cold.
Luckily for me I spotted three seals just as I got off the ship. Three seals were resting on the gangway. They were so cute. So it wasn't a wasted day. It was cold to begin with but it got much warmer as the day went along.
On another port of call, I finally got to the end of the world but didn't stay there for long as I boarded a catamaran and headed to Matillo island. Why you ask did I come all the way to Ushuaia only to leave it. The penguins of course. The island has three different species of penguins. The Magellenic, Gentoo and two King penguins. Well it was definitely worth the two hour trip. We saw many hundreds of Magellenic and Gentoo penguins. We only saw the one king penguin and it was laying down not moving, I thought it was dead. Apparently penguins laying down means they are hot. The penguins were so cute especially the chicks who are fluffy. We also saw many sea lions and birds. The beautiful mountain range around us were magnificent. Stunning scenery and wonderful wildlife made this trip so worthwhile.
We headed back to Buenos Aires and I spent the following five days exploring La Boca which was so lively and colourful. Then La Recoleta which is a lovely peaceful suburbs near the arts centre and the famous Recoleta Cemetary where Eva Peron Duarte is buried. Then I exploredd the main sights of the city from Plaze de Mayo to Puerto Madero to Montserrat. This was obviously once I figured out the bus/colectivo system which I found highly complicated.
