I used a different bus company on this overnight journey - 'Mar Y Valle' - the best so far, most of the meals they serve on buses here are pretty bad, not a hint of vedge or healthiness and generally only just about edible, but the food on this one was actually quite nice - there was carrot and sweetcorn and tomato, the usual ham and cheese, of course, and chocolate pudding!!
Anyway, we arrived in Puerto Madryn at 8am and went straight to the hostel - I met an American guy, Brian and two English girls on the bus so we sat and had a coffee and a chat before getting showered.....and that's now - I'm just waiting for Brian to get out of the shower to go check this town out.....tomorrow we see penguins - hoorah!!  
I'm back.....but noooo, not penguins the next day, Orka's (killer whales) - one of the most incredible sight's I've ever witnessed!! I've seen it on a David Attenborough documentory but never thought I'd ever see it in real life!!
On the Sunday we arrived, we just wandered around town, had lunch, I had a siesta.

Later we chatted to some people who'd been on the tour that day who said they'd seen the Orkas. 

The tour was due to leave the hostel at 8am and was only going to spend an hour or so at the location where this happened so Brian, Tom, Jen (an English couple) and I decided to hire a car and drive out to Punta Norte on Peninsular Valdes so we could choose our own schedule.
We were told that they are most likely to come in to feed at high tide which was 11am the next day.
We left at 7am to make sure we got there early - there's no way any of us wanted to miss it!! We arrived at the location at 9.30am and as soon as we go out of the car Jen spotted something in the water.....from then on it was just pure excitement and amazement for the next 4 hours!! 


6 of them swam around the coast a few times and then disappeared for a little while, then the fins came back around again and just around high tide they started to heave themselves onto the beach to grab seal pups. It was just amazing to watch - the poor little pups didn't seem to understand what was going on, it was quite sad for the pups, but watching nature like this was incredible.
After this we drove around the rest of the peninsular, we saw the penquins at Caleta Valdes, they weren't up to much, just standing around really and then we went to Punta Delgada and saw the elephant seals, then headed back to the hostel. Brian cooked us all dinner.

Tuesday - We went on a tour to Rawson, Punta Tombo and Gaiman. First stop was Rawson where we hopped onto a speedy boat to see the dolphins - we saw a few of them and at one point, two of them were racing alongside the boat which was cool.


Next stop was Punta Tombo where there is the worlds biggest single species penguin colony. The penguins were just soooo cute - and there were thousands of them!! (around 300,000 I think) The penguins spend some months in the sea and they were due to leave in the next couple of weeks, so I just made it in time to see them. They partner for life and always come back to the same nest each year - most of them were just sitting in their nests, but some of them were waddling around and swimming.


It was a really incredible sight - penguins as far as the eye could see in every direction!! We could walk all around them and get really close to them which was great - the pathways around the area were littered with random penguins, who have the right of way - if a penguin is crossing the path, humans have to wait whilst the penguin does so! I could've spent a whole day there, but a couple of hours and we had to move on.

Next stop was Gaiman - a Welsh town. Apparently some years ago the Argentinian government offered Welsh people the opportunity to come and live here so lots of them did so. Lots of the signs in the town are in Welsh and the Welsh language is still taught in two of the schools- bizarre eh?! We went for a 'Welsh tea' - proper tea cups and saucers and a variety of cakes. They still managed to slip in a cake with dulce de leche in it tho' - not very Welsh!!  

Did I mention Dulce de leche before?! ...well if I didn't, it's like a kind of caramel texture and taste, it is quite yummy - they're mad for it - they serve it with breakfast, in cakes, croissants, ice cream and to be honest with anything else they think they can get away with!!
After the tour we had a couple of drinks and then went to a restaurant down by the beach and had some dinner (can't seem to stop eating here!!).

Wednesday - Didn't do much today - just booked bus ticket, had lunch and then got on the bus to Rio Gallegos at 4pm. Bus company was Don Otto this time and it wasn't the best - it left an hour late, then it abandoned us for an hour at Trelew and then arrived a couple of hours late at Rio G. Also I accidentally booked semi-cama so the seats weren't the best, but I did have two seats to myself so I was able to sprawl out which made it better.