Buenos Aires - Trelew

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After our visit to the cemetery we got our stuff together and headed for the train station to catch the night train south. It sounds more glamorous than it was. Something that could have only been built by Fred Flinstone pulled into our platform and everyone charged it before it had even stopped. Some people were getting on through the doors and fishing there bags and remaining members of there families through the windows. The interior of the train was like a Guatemalan bus, with only benches for seats, and the lights only functioned when the train was moving fast. Fortunately Chris and I had a bench to ourselves so did hour long shifts of sleep with one lying down using the other as a pillow. we both slept surprisingly well though! we arrived in Sierra de la Ventana, a little village near Bahia Blanca, at about 6.30 and headed for a campsite. Luckily the nicest man in the world owned it and had us set up in no time and seeing as it was so early we thought we would lie down for an hour....So we woke up again at about 1pm and went to check the town out. We spent the first 2 days walking near the village and swimming in the freezing river. On the Sunday we decided o go to the national park of Sierra de la Ventana where we did a hike up to a beautiful peak where a hollow in the rock formed a window to se the other side of the mountain range.

The following day we caught a bus to Bahia Blanca and then a night bus to Puerto Madryn, a city in Patagonia established by the Welsh a few centuries ago. We checked into our hostel at about 7 in the morning and spent the day searching for potential projects we could do (the area has a big research center as there are lots of interesting animals, plants, fossils, etc in the area), though we had no luck. We also wanted to get to the Valdez Peninsula where there is a big nature reserve but rather than do a tour wanted to hire a car and do it ourselves. Finally by Thursday morning we had a group of 5, a car and beautiful weather! The Peninsula was vast, giving Chris quite a drive on nothing more than dirt roads all day, and was absolutely fantastic. We saw a huge range of birds, including the ostrich's latino cousin rhea, a huge number of guanacos (llama-like), sea lions, elephant seals, millions of penguins and, to top it all, orcas! We also spotted the local armadillo which seemed to be accustomed to eating crisps given to him by tourists. After a fantastic day we made it home in one piece, though the poor little bird we hit on the way didn't. Yesterday, by which stage we had moved to a smaller, more local hostel, we spent the afternoon on the beach and then had an "asado" (bbq) with the owners at the hostel which was cooked by a lovely Argentinian girl who happened to be a FANTASTIC cook! We left there this morning and are currently in a small Welsh city called Trelew. Having visited the Welsh village Gaiman today we are getting ready for our journey south to El Calafate to see the glaciers.

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