Puerto Madryn Days 3 & 4

On Monday, myself, Andrew, Irina, Kate and Nicki headed off in our rented car to a place called Punta Tomba which is appx 190km south of Puerto Madryn to visit a Penguin colony. Such a long drive down which took us appx 3 hours. Long way to go to see a few penguins but the whole day out was great craic and was good to chill out looking at penguins for the afternoon.

After getting back later that evening, myself and Andrew made some enquiries about getting bus tickets for tomorrow to travel south from Puerto Madryn but it turns out that there are no bus spaces until Wednesday. We booked our tickets and extended our stay in the hostel for another night. Was totally happy staying another night as the hostel is really nice. Irina, Kate and Nicki left Puerto Madryn later in the evening. Before they left we all went out for a meal in a local Mexican restaurant. Will miss them when they are gone ... was great hanging out with them over the past few days.

I had absoloutely no plans for Tuesday whatsoever, so I decided to take the morning bus across to the peninsula. Everyone kept telling me how nice the peninsula was and how I should go whale watching. I decided to go but to be honest Im going to have to cut down on all these excursions as they are seriously eating into my budget.

I was finished the whale watching trip about 13:00 but had to hang out in the village of Puerto Piramides until 18:00 for a bus back which was so boring as there is very little to do there. Glad I brought a packed lunch. After getting back, I done some shopping, cooked dinner and had an early night. Not looking forward to this long bus trip tomorrow.

After breakfast on Wednesday morning (17th Nov), myself and Andrew made a packed lunch and checked out of HiPatagonia hostel. Was a great few days here in Puerto Madryn and will miss the place when Im gone despite the crappy nightlife. I really hope when we get to Ushuaia the nighlife is better. Our bus departed at 13:30. Watched some movies on the bus which passed the time and had the mp3 player so it wasnt that bad, but by the time we arrived in Rio Gallegos (about 1,235km south) it was appx 7am on Thursday morning. We then had an hour wait before we boarded another bus to take us further south to Ushuaia (another 570km). We eventually arrived in Ushuaia at 22:00 on Thursday night. Shattered! The 2nd bus journey was a nightmare .. as we had to wait for the bus to go on the boat across to an island called ´Tierra del Fuego´(Land of fire) off the southern coast of Argentina.

We also had to leave Argentina and enter Chile and then go back into Argentina again so there were mutiple border controls which made the journey so much longer. Was so happy to arrive into our hostel in Ushuaia on Thursday night. I got chatting to some girls from Germany on the bus who were staying in the same hostel as me so after we arrived we all went for a drink in the local Irish pub in Ushuaia.

Was happy to get back to the hostel after ... as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.