Blogs from Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 38

Despite many hours travelling by coach, watching endless chick flicks starring Jennifer Lopez and participating in "bus bingo", we have already seen the many wonders that Patagonia has to offer. During our stay in Puerto Madryn we got the chance to be at one with nature and check out the local sealife. It was totally unexpected that we would be able to get so near to the animals in their natural habitat. Nathan even got the opportunity to perfect his David Attenborough impression. Close encounters with killer whales, penguins, elephant seals and sea lions were just the tip of the iceberg as today we got to the see the grand daddy of all glaciers, Perito Moreno. As with Iguassu Falls it is difficult to put the enormity and scale of the glacier into words or pictures ... read more

The Spanish language has a great word to describe the roads in much of this lovely country - ripio - but more of that later. We flew down to the town of Trelew with Aerolieas the other night in the hope of seeing some wildlife and maybe getting some cooler weather - we got the first but not the latter. Puerto Madryn is the big draw in this area, but muggins´here stayed in Trelew for a few nights as it was closer to the airport. The hotel we stayed in (Touring) had lost much of it´s glory since the days when the first Welsh people came to this part of Argentina in an effort to escape English oppression (and Wales if any of my experiences of the place are anything to go by). This wasn´t necessarily ... read more

Penguins everywhere!!! Over one million!! Absolutely incredible. As far as the eye can see, Punta Tombo is penguin land. The beach was covered. The surrounding area (up to 1Km back from the beach) was covered with penguins and their nests. It was a long day with lots of travelling, but very worthwhile. Felt like we were in the middle of a David Attenborough set!! We stopped just outside Trelaw on the way back for a "traditional" Welsh Tea. There was tea, cakes and photos of Diana Princess of Wales everywhere! It was bizarre!! Next we´re jetting off to El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier..... ... read more

As promised at the end of the last blog, I've been on pilgrimage to Welsh Patagonia. Or, at least my stomach has, as I visited a number of Welsh tea shops. For those of you that don´t know, my mother was Welsh. When I was young ( I know that´s difficult to imagine), our parents used to take us down to visit the Welsh relatives in the school holidays. A highlight of those childhood visits was our Aunt Olive´s teas. The Welsh teas in Patagonia though, didn't live up to my memories of the huge spreads that our Aunt Olive used to put on. Even if my mother would always accuse us of having hollow legs, it would have been rude not to have done justice to the effort that went into Olive´s spreads. The Welsh ... read more

Just call me "Wimpy", because I have successfully fully digested not one, but TWO hamburgers in the past week! As most of you know, I have not eaten beef or pork for about eight or nine years now (see blog titled, "Mandy Eats Meat, Twice!" for a more in depth look into my semi-veg life). After speaking with several people here about the processing of beef versus chicken, I have decided that though my taste buds long for a more feather-laden creature, eating too much of it here may just result in my babies having three arms and a gimpy leg....hormones. Ironically, this is the exact reason I stopped eating beef in the States (hormone regulations are a bit stricter for chickens than for cows back home). As this is the land flowing with milk and ... read more