So we left Mark and Lucy in Bariloche and took the 15 hour bus to Puerto Madryn where we are now. The bus itself would have been a great and comfortable bus when it was built, sometime in the late 1980s. For some reason they started serving coffee at around 11pm and decided to follow up the first okish movie (Changing Lanes) with the woefully bad `Sniper 2``starring` Tom Berringer...maybe their thought process was that without the coffee noone would stay up for it...

We were rather conveniently at the back of the bus meaning that we didn`t get disturbed too much and we both managed to get some sleep, Jen about 6 hours, me about 4. On disembarking for some utterly bizarre reason we decided not to go and find a hostel but to book ourselves onto a 2 day wildlife tour...and they booked us into a hostel instead. Thus we dashed over to the other side of town, had about 1/2 an hour to lock everything up and then jump on the minibus.

We had an excellent day, and tomorrow sounds even more fun. The road to Porta Tombo is mostly unsealed and over 180 kms one way so we finally made it to the Magellenic POenguin reserve at around lunchtime. This reserve is so different to the other ones we have seen mainly due to it´s size. At the moment there are over 200,000 (!) penguins, and when the adolescents return and the eggs hatch in a couple of months that figure will be nearer a million. The reserve itself is much more open plan than others we`ve seen although it is warden copn trolled. Whilst you do walk on specified walkways the penguins can go where they want as the fence is designed so they can walk under it. No area is off bounds to them. We saw many couples taking turns warming their eggs, a few swimming in the sea and preening, and many many that just came up to you (within a foot or so) and looked quizzically before waddling off. It was wonderful and the hour and 1/2 we had there flew by.

Now we obviously were`t listening when they described the rest of the trip as the next port of call was a Welsh Tearoom (!!!). Gaiman (what a great name for a village...) along with Trelew and Puerto Madryn were first inhabited by Welsh settlers and thus they still have `original`tearooms. The one we were deposited at had been visited by Princess Diana at some point (wasn`t her Stepmum Argentine??) but we declined the 4 quid service fee (payable regardless of what you had to drink) and had a quick bit to eat and soft drink near the town sqaure. It set us back 2 quid and we were far happier than we would have been in some fake touristy pseudo-Welsh place...

The last stop of the day was at the local natural history museum which was basically like the one in London on 1/100th of the scale. It was excellent though although we could have done with an English speaking guide.

Tomorrow is whale watching (is this the 5th time???) and elephant seal spotting. We`re told we may (if we`re mega lucky) get to see Orca too. The hostel we`re staying at is excellent and they are even showing England Vs South Africa on Saturday so I`m a happy bunny. We`re outta here on Saturday, the long trek (16 hours) south to Rio Gallegas where we hope to jump on a 5 hour bus to El Calefatè - home (well it`s 80 kms away but it thought of as the home) of the Moreno Glacier, one of the only advancing glaciers in the world. You will have seen it, the one that has all the chunks of ice fall off it and into the sea.