Patagonia

After chilling out in Buenos Aires, we headed off down the East coast to a small town called Puerto Madryn. Famous for its wildlife, we booked onto a trip round the Valdes Penninsula. This flat land is home to penguines, sea lions & elephant seals, along with many others.

The beautiful sunshine did little to disguise the sharp nip in the air as we walked down to the sea lion beach. Their huge bodies hardly moved as they laid on the beach.

Apart from the dominant male who was trying to protect his future conquests.

Further round we stopped once more to say Hello to a large colony of penguins. It was as if they were posing for the camera as they held their heads high and posistioned themselves in convienient photo spots.

They were also very, very cute!

Final stop along this incredible stretch of the Atlantic coast was to see the Elephant Seals.

However they were all too far in the distance for photos.

The dramatic coast line made up for it. (If you look closely, those white specs at the top edge of the beach are elephant seals - just really far away! - Kenny)

The main aim of the day was to go Southern Wright Whale watching. We were taken down to the beach, dressed in life jackets and boarded a small-ish boat.

The bumpy ride out did not take too long before we stopped, I expected to only see these magnificant mammels from a distance and only if we were very lucky.

To my amazement within minutes we saw a mother & calf group comming towards us.

They had no fear of the boat and ventured in within arms reach!

Litterally!!!!!

We remained out until we had seen 3 sets of mothers and calfs. It was incredible to see these creatures so close and amazing to watch the babies actually playing in the water with their mothers.

As we are now running out of time in South America, we had little time in Puerto Madryn and headed off deep into Patagonia the next day. After many hours on busses we arrived in a place called 'El Calafate'. A small town on the edge of the Andes, very touristy and extremely alpine looking. The town had one main street full of wooden buildings with long sloping roofs containing either hotels, restaurants or gift shops. The scenery was beautiful, very vast and open with a large lake near the town.

We decided to explore further on horse back one evening.

We walked up the valley, once again the air had a cold nip to it.

With the Andes mountains in the distance.

The horses knew their way and before long we were back at the farm lodge.

The wooden lodge has the most fanatastic view over the valley and a big Parilla Bar-B-Que, where we enjoyed a very filling dinner. (The girl is not Kenny's new woman but a lovely girl we met from Taiwan).

Outside the lodge at sunset.

El Calafate is famous for one of the most beautiful glaciers in the world. 'Perito Moreno' is around 19 miles long, 3 miles wide and 74 meters high! We boarded a boat to get a closer look.

Unfortunately the mist had descended.

Even so the glacier was awesome.

And HUGE!

So incredible to see it so close up.

The amazing blue colour gleemed through.

I must have taken a hundred photos but every side looks so different with different shapes.

There is also a network of walkways around this section of the glacier so we could see it from more angles.

An ice cave.

Amazing sight, well worth the trip.

Back on the road we travelled north to 'El Chalten'. A very small town in the middle of a national park, the only activity here is to go hiking. All busses stop at the rangers lodge for instruction and maps before entering the town. We also discovered how far from home we are. (In case you can't make it out, London was 13,754km, roughly 8,600 miles in old money. For the first time on this trip, I felt very far from home. - Kenny).

Two streets lined with hostels, mountain shops and restaurants we find our hostel infront of a craggy outcrop.

The weather turned wet and cold so we took refuge in a micro brewery next door. Good ale, at last, to Kenny's delight.

Day 2 the weather was still bad, we even had snow, which is odd considering it is summer here. However we decided to brave the cold and do a small hike.

It was very chilly.

Plus the view at the top was a little clouded!

Kenny decided we were best to come back to town and return to the brewery for the rest of the day.

Day 3 - Wow, since arriving we had no idea this was the view from our hostel!

A perfect day to do the most famous hike hear up to see 'Fitz Roy'.

It really was more than stunning, the entire walk gave us these views.

First sight of Fitz Roy (left peak).

There was snow on the ground, to prove it Kenny made this tiny snowman.

Still a distance from Fitz Roy the pointed rock in the center.

Lunch stop. Ummm empanadas.
(For those of you not au fait with empanadas, they're basically Spanish Cornish Pasties, but with a variety of different fillings. Widely available across South America and yummy indeed! - Kenny)

Hiking through snow, it was a little slippy............

................. but the incredible area more than made up for it.

Finally Fitz Roy up close.

Walking to the bus station the next morning. We are so sad to leave this area, it is the top place on our trip so far. Both of us have said we want to return. A mixture of wonderful scenery, amazing hiking and very, very good food.
Next stop - The Lake District.