Puerto Madryn, Argentina...

O.K. we have some catching up to do! Been rushing about like crazy so haven`t had time for a catch up in a while but here goes. So our last night in Buenos Aires was fantastic, we went to an underground Millonga (tango club) at a place called La Catedral, and my lovely Australian friend Gina came to meet us with her boyfriend Eddie. Unfortunately Gina and Eddie were much better at the tango than us which sent me into a bit of a strop, obviously, but red wine helped me get over it.

The next day it was back on the bus (after my hero Danny carried both of our bags as I was too hungover) for the long 20 hour-ish journey into Patagonia. It´s such a strange place, you can drive for hours and hours and hours and not see anything apart from shrubs and barren land. It´s so vast it´s just mind boggling. But when the sun goes down and the stars come out it´s just stunning. Being on a bus you wake up every hour or so, and I was fortunate enough to wake up as the sun was rising over the endless horizon which was so beautiful. On the way Danny met a German guy who was spending the next six months WALKING from Bahia Blanca (a few hours south of Buenos Aires) to Ushuaia which is known as ´the end of the world´ being the most Southerly town in the world. The only thing further south is Antarctica.

So we arrived in Puerto Madryn and stayed at a homely little hostel called Posada Catalejo, and for the first time since we started our travels we had a room to ourselves. I´ve so missed my personal space, to the point where it is a relief to be in the shower or the loo - the only place I know I can really be on my own! Speaking of which, travelling has really given me back an enjoyment of life's simplest pleasures, not only does being in a room alone feel like a luxury now, so do bus journeys (I love watching the scenery go by), bottles of Pepsi, lying down flat (after said bus journeys) or getting a well thumbed old novel in a book swap.

After getting to Puerto Madryn we unpacked and headed out to the Welsh towns of Trelew and Gaiman, visiting a museum which told the history of the 153 original (and very brave) Welsh families who originally settled in the area around 1865, which was fascinating, and although the women who worked there weren`t Welsh (bit disappointing), one of them was half Italian, half Chilean with an Irish husband and living in Patagonia. What a mix! Gaiman was very small and quaint with little Welsh tea houses which Princess Diana visited in 1995.

The next day we visited the Peninsula Valdes, which is known as a breeding ground for Right Whales and also has tons more wildlife in abundance, from elephant seals and penguins to orcas and dolphins. Being poor travellers we couldn´t take one of the expensive tours of the area, but we took the local bus to the beach at Puerto Piramides where you can take a boat trip out, or if you are said poor traveller, laze about on the beach all day watching the whales from there, which was incredible. It was a blazing sunny day so we stayed warm sheltering from the wind behind the sanddunes, and having a drink in the bars in the little town. Heavenly.

Our bus to Rio Gallegos wasn`t until 5pm the next day, so we spent the morning wandering round the town looking at the local handmade goods, then lounged on the sofa in the hostel until it was time to head to the bus station. It was 17 hours to Rio Gallegos, where we had to disembark and then catch another bus to El Calafate where we are now. We got here at about 5pm and were met at the bus station by staff from the America Del Sur hostel who organised a free taxi for us, and it`s wonderful here. The rooms are small (only four to a dorm) but look out over the snow capped Andes and a beautiful bright blue lake and lagoon. We`ve just had an `All you can eat BBQ` and sat and chatted with lots of other travellers at dinner while watching the sun set out the big windows, and they`ve organised for a bus to pick us up and take us to the Perito Moreno glacier in the morning, which I have wanted to see for a very, very long time.

Bye for now! Sorry it was such a mammoth post but I don`t want to forget a thing.