Puerto Madryn - Windsurfing and Armadillos

Arriving early from another luxury cama bus into Puerto Madryn we headed out looking for something to do and discovered windsurfing was available and costing under GBP9 for an hour's lesson! Sold!! The last time I went windsurfing I distinctly remember getting stuck in some reed at the edge of Bala Lake, so it was a welcome change to find that after some brief tuition I actually had an awesome time going exactly where I wanted to go...even if the odd tac wasn't actually quite so perfect as I would have liked!



Having a lot of Welsh influence in Patagonia, the Lonely Planet mentioned that Puerto Madryn had various statues devoted to various Welshmen. Martin and I went off in search of one and although we didn't find anyone particularly famous (Tom Jones for example) I did hitch a ride on his equally curly-haired, four-legged cousin...made out of Plaster of Paris and wire.

Mission accomplished it was off to meet Jen and Rosie (Jen who I'd met whilst queuing for the loo on the nightbus!) for a steak and champagne lunch...cos we could and cos they were loving the change in cost of living since leaving Brazil. That night, classy as we were, the four of us went for white wine on the beach, after which we tried to check out the nightlife in Puerto Madryn. Out of season nothing much seemed to be happening...being such a party animal Jen wouldn't let that stop her though...making use of a children's play area to get the party started! The rest of us would have joined her but we were over the height restrictions! :-p

Our seal, penguin and whale-watching viewpoints for the day lay a good 120km away down gravel roads, out on the Valdes Peninsula. Whilst we went to get the car, the girls assembled a picnic, then off we headed down some twisty gravel roads with Jet pumping from the CD player. Unsurprisingly our two CD collection of Jet and Foo Fighters got a bit old after 420km...but they certainly bring back the memories now!

After a brief stop at the tourist information centre, more dashing down dirt roads, and nearly seeing a nasty accident as one woman slammed on the anchors as her car started to skid, our first stop was at the southermost point. From there we had an awesome view of the coastline and hundred of seals all bathing in the sun whilst some were making a very laborious task out of reaching the sea!

Another good stretch of driving got us to the halfway viewpoint, complete with some stripy colouration in the sand and a view of the south end of a huge sandspit. An unmarked stop, partway to the northermost end was one of the most exciting. You were literally feet away from penguin burrows. They would emerge just below you to begin their waddling slightly clumbsy, sometimes falling descent to the sea. Very cute!

Completely unexpected at the north viewpoint an armadillo was charging around the carpark scaring the local foxes away from the food offered by the Argentine tourists! The foxes certainly didn't know what to make of such a fast-moving armoured hedgehog and just seemed to keep well out of the way.

After patronising the cafe (we seemed to be in desperate need of cake), due to the very good time we were making about the peninsula (must have been the car) we had a good couple of hours to sit and wait for the orcas. Furstratingly luck wasn't on our side, but on returning to the car we did get to see armadillo combat which was an awesome spectacle!