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What a whirlwind trip! Regi & I left Saturday afternoon for our 16 hour bus ride down to Peninsula Valdez and Puerto Madryn. When we arrived on Sunday morning, the reservation I had made didn’t hold so we were stuck looking for a new place (which we eventually found - El Refugio in Puetro Madryn - good hostel). One quick note about Patagonia - there is absolutely nothing (NOTHING) and I have no idea why people would want to live in the middle of this flat, foreboding, depressing, and (in all reality) boring land. Outside of the Andes mountains to the West and the ocean to the East, what occupies Patagonia in the bottom center of Argentina is, in my eyes, virtually uninhabitable. Argentina is an extremely beautiful country but you have to be running from something to want to live in Patagonia.After checking in at El Refugio and booking our trip to Valdez for the following day, we met up with Guillermina (unfortunately Michela wasn’t in town) in Trelew (about an hour E of Madryn) and headed to the beach (Playa Union) as the weather for the whole weekend was fantastic. Talking with G it was cool to catch up on what has changed (she is planning to go to Paris next year for vacations) since the last time I saw her and Michela in El Bolson almost 5 months ago. We spent the day with her on the beach before heading back to her apartment where she treated us to some milk/sugar/coffee. Afterwards, we grabbed some quick pizza with her and her friends (really quick as in 10 minutes before the last bus left for Madryn). All in all it was a great Sunday.Monday morning we woke up early at 7:00 AM and jumped in our mini-tour bus to head towards Peninsula Valdez. As with my trip to Aconcagua with my parents, Regi and I lucked out and had a great group in our tour bus. One Spanish woman, one Spanish man, one French woman, a German guy, a Portuguese couple, four Argentinians, Regi and I went first to Puerto Piramides where we boarded our whale-watching boat. The whales were all over the place! Southern Right Whales make all sorts of sounds and came within 10 feet of the boat. For this friendly/curious nature that we experienced, they were named Right Whales as in the “right whale to kill” because they were so easy to spear back in the 1800s when they were almost completed killed off. Afterwards, we headed out to Punta Cantor where we saw Elephant Seals sprawled out on the beach (Madryn is only one of two places in the world they go to breed) as well as some Killer Whales swimming in the sea. I would have given anything to see a Killer Whale kill an Elephant Seal because these seals move so slow on the beach it is unbelievable…but it wasn’t meant to be…After Cantor, we headed up to Caleta Valdes where there is a huge colony of Magellan Penguins - we got within 5 feet of them - it was like being in the world’s largest zoo (very cool)…after Caleta Valdes we went down the Peninsula to Punta Delgada where we were allowed to walk on the beach (the other places where marked by rails) and take pictures (legally, sort of) with some Elephant Seals…as I said before, they are so big and slow it would have been great to see a Killer Whale attack (I know I know I should be overwhelmed by Nature’s natural beauty and the animal’s natural habitat etc. etc. - as our guide told us - but what the Killer Whales do to the Elephant Seals is natural as well right…). After covering the vast majority of the Peninsula, we headed back to Madryn where everyone from our group showered and then met up to eat pizza. It was a loooong great day that ended with everyone sharing a couple slices and a couple beers (including our tour guides).On Tuesday, Regi and I rented bikes and headed out of town before our bus left. The day was as beautiful as the previous ones and we spent 2 hours just touring the city. During this time, she told me about a bike/camping trip she made with another girl from Stuttgart, Germany to Marseille, France one summer that took about a month, crossing Switzerland as they went . How cool is that? Also, she told me about her solo backpacking adventure in Spain & Portugal as well as her road trip through Italy with some friends and how much she liked Naples. Needless to say, some of her trips made me start to think and dream (especially the bike trip across Switzerland and France).

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