Today our port of call was Puerto Madryn.  We’d opted not to do an organized tour and planned to just go ashore and have a wander around. 

The history of this city is quite interesting.  The settlement was originally established by a group of 150 colonists from Wales.  Seeking to escape from religious persecution in Britain, they were lured by the Argentine government’s promise to provide 100 square miles of land along the the Chubut River.  The original name of the settlement was Port Madryn in honour of a Baron Madryn in their native Wales and today many of the street names are still Welsh sounding – Lewis, Jones, Parry etc.  Nowadays Puerto Madryn is apparently one of the fastest growing cities in Argentina and has recently opened Aloar an aluminum factory.  We haven’t so far discovered what they mean by factory – we thought we could see a smelter but haven’t had access to good old Google to check further. 

So we had our morning cuppa then got organized and went up for breakfast and walked off the ship around 10am.   There was a really long pier and so they had a little shuttle bus running back and forward and as it was just about to leave we hopped on.  We had a nice leisurely walk for about a couple of kilometer along the sea front.  It apparently has really big tides but when we were walking along there the tide was right in.  But they had lots of little shelters but they were at right angles to the beach and facing each other – not quite sure why they’re set up that way.  After a while we turned and headed back and stopped off at a lovely little coffee shop where we had an amazing cappuccino complete with two delicious little biscuits.  The wifi was pretty good there so I managed to get a couple of blog updates done.  We left there and came up on a little shopping centre so had a wander round there before making our way back to the ship.  We stopped off and watched a big tractor with a massive boat trailer come down the beach and bring ashore what was like a big rubber duck which had a load of people who’d been on a tour.   And then we walked back along the pier to the ship.

Once back on the ship we went up to Horizon Court and had a light salad lunch and then decided we’d have a little rest so came back to the cabin for a quick siesta.  We got up again at 4pm and headed down to Explorers Lounge for the afternoon trivia session.  We teamed up with another couple – who it turned out were Scottish and in fact were from Erskine – and for those of you not familiar with the geography – that’s only about 12 or 15 miles from Drymen where my family live.  We did much better today – 16 out of 20 and the winners had 19 so didn’t feel we’d disgraced ourselves.  Craig was battling a bit of a sore throat so thought he’d enjoy a nice cup of tea so we came down to the International and he had a tea and I had a glass of wine.  We sat and watched all the people getting back from tours – it had started to rain a bit by now too. 

Back up to the cabin and we got changed for dinner – and totally forgot the dressed for dinner pic!  Sharon – it was that lovely yellow and aubergine kaftan top we got on our travels – Greece I think?  We had a drink in Crooners first and got talking to a lady who used to live in Seattle but now lives in Idaho.   But we picked her brain shamelessly and have got some great information for our visit to Todd and Maryana in Seattle later this year and our planned trip through the Canadian Rockies and then our drive from Seattle to New Mexico.  (I have heaps of notes written on one side of a napkin!).

We went down for dinner and tonight were in the Da Vinci dining room and shared with a couple from southern California who have done many years of RVing – with a fifth wheeler and a couple from the south of England – I think near Bournemouth.  Once again a great conversation and a delicious dinner – I had gravlax – absolutely superb, then veal scallopine for mains, followed by cherry jubilee for dessert.  By the time we left the dining room it was almost 10pm and Craig’s throat was giving him a bit of grief.  So we headed back to the cabin and I dosed him up with a few meds then I went back down to the casino for a while.  Another donation night - think I might give the game away this cruise.  Its actually a very quiet casino compared to other ships we’ve been on.  It’s nowhere near as much fun betting at a table where there’s only 2 or 3 of you.  So having done my dash – though I did manage to last for quite a while – I headed up to bed too.