A southern right whale of a time

Las ballenas grandes! After our epic first hitch-hiking session we spent a few days on the east coast of Patagonia, starting in Puerto Madryn which is at the neck of the Peninsula Valdes national park, a wildlife haven: whales, orcas, dolphins, elephant seals, sea lions, you name it. You might remember Sir David Attenborough taking about this place, as it's the only place in the work where orcas will practically beach themselves to get at some tasty seals! Its easy to spend hours on the beach watching the 12-metre-long southern right whales and their babies come as close as 10m from the shore, so no need to pay for boat trips here (the photo above isn't zoomed in!).

Our next stop on the way south was at the non-descript town of Trelew. It's saving grace was its lovely residents. We spent two days Couch surfing with Victoria. Small person, big heart! We celebrated her housemate Ismael's birthday with another excellent Argentine feast, and a birthday cake (decorated by ourselves) sweet enough to put us all into deep sugar comas! It was stuffed with a layer of dolce de leche - our new favourite toast-topper - which is the condensed milk toffee stuff that goes into banoffee pie, and another layer of incredibly rich strawberry cream. We spent hours chatting with Victoria, drinking beer and making empanadas, and she really made our time on the windy, fairly bland east coast of Patagonia.

Trelew is one of the original Welsh settlements here. Those hardy Welsh came over in the 19th century, and against all the odds managed to settle the area with virtually nothing and no water. They landed on 28th July, so there is a lot of streets (well, one in each town) called 28 de Julio. After discovering the area that they landed was in fact not a lush Welsh valley as promised, but a desert, they went off west towards the Andes on horseback. We too made this trip, but this time by hitch-hiking with a lovely old couple who shared their sandwiches and sweets with us. After the sparse desolate land of the east coast, the Andes are monumental. And hitch-hiking isn't always the easiest or fastest mode of transport, but the 600km only took us one day - it took the Welsh a month!

CHRIS