Day 43-47 Patagonia

     Day 47 Monday- Got out of bed early again to make the most of our last day in this beautiful place. Kitty Laetizia and I were picked up and taken to the stables on the beach. We saddled up and headed out onto the sand. Kitty comes from a proper English family and has been riding for years and years. She gave me a few pointers which saved me from being unable to walk after we finished cantering down the beach. I have to say though, I still had a difficult time walking for quite some time after the ride. Kitty took this picture which I think is great:

But Pic of the Day goes to this one:

     After the ride we met up with the other three on the beach and enjoyed a last few hours of tranquility before hopping on the bus for the 18 hour bus ride back to the city. Fantastic trip to Northern Patagonian! 

Day 46 Sunday- Today was our excursion day. All the girls headed to the peninsula to go whale watching but Zack and I have seen whales before and headed south to Punto Tombo to go look at Penguines. The agency we booked with sent some random guy in his personal civic-ish car who picked us up and took us for the day. First stop was at the dolphin watching boats, about 45 minutes south of Puerto Madryn. Here Zack and I donned our classic fishing attire:

     We headed out on the boats for probably an hour and a half to look at the black and white dolphins. It was so cool! The dolphins found us probably within 15 minutes and started playing along the sides and bow of the boat. Out in the water we met up with another dolphin watching boat and the two captains ran the boats side by side separated by about 20 feet. The dolphins loved it and probably about 10-15 came and were playing on all sides of the boat. It was really amazing because you could see the dolphins jumping right at the very front of the other boat and then they would come over to ours for awhile. Great time and worthy I think of pic of the day:

     Afterwards we headed an hour farther south to Punto Tombo. Home to the largest penguin colony outside of Antarctica. Get this 500,000 penguins!! They currently are between mating and the babies hatching so we probably went at the worst time of the year but it was still incredible. A majority of them were in their holes on their eggs. They dig about 1 feet deep, two feet wide holes so you can still see them fully, if anything its just wind protection. The path was almost a straight line through the colony with rocks marking out the outsides of the path. It was so crazy because the penguins had dug their holes within a foot of the path boundaries so I was within arms lengths of them. And literally every 3-5 there was a new hole/nest. This continued for the 30 minutes of the path we walked. You could see hills in the distance peppered with holes too. Lots of penguins were up stretching their legs or waddling down to the ocean to go get food so we got to see so many!! Their were about 50 just hanging out on the beach in a big group as well. I killed my battery taking pictures of the dolphins but some nice women from DC took our pictures with them and are going to email me the pictures so I'll post that when I get it. We met back up with the girls for dinner and returned to Cheers restaurant, the same place we went to Saturday night. As before the food was unbelievable and we ordered some very nice wine from Mendoza Argentina. Some of the best wine I have had ever, and certainly here. As a thank you for the repeat business the owner brought us all a glass of champagne on the house. Even Monica who we convinced to have her first glass of champagne ever! Fantastic day, and fantastic dinner/night. Couldn't feel happier about this trip.

Day 45 Saturday- We decided to make our first full day in Puerto Madryn a beach day. We all spent the entire day on the beach and needless to say I look lobster-esque. I forgot my camera (shocking I know) so when the girls get me their photos I'll pick one pic and post it. I'm guessing it will be me buried fully in the sand, credit to Monica who undertook the project with a little help from the rest of the girls. There are some great beach shots too though so we will see once I receive them.

     I made friends with a street dog that Zack named fighter. He looked part pitbull part dogo and was an absolute stud. We played on the beach for a few hours together and by the end he was acting like I was his owner. He wouldn't go to any of the other people in the group and stayed by my side from there out. He even came with us when we left the beach but finally we had to say goodbye and send him on his way.

     For dinner we went to this fantastic restaurant known as Cheers. It was the best service I have received outside of the states with the owner personally welcoming us and showing us to the table. The food was incredible. Kitty and I split this bacon wrapped shrimp appetizer which was to die for:

     Also we had some incredible wine at this place tonight, which was personally picked out by the owner. The best part was even with all the courses we ate and the fantastic wine we drank the dinner was less than $150 (post tip) for all of us, unreal.

Day 44 Friday- Finally got off the bus after 27 hours. There was a very bad traffic accident in the middle of nowhere so the emergency response was very slow in getting there. Traffic backed up for ten hours but we only were stuck for about 6-7. Superrrrrrr long bus ride though I was so thankful to get off of it. Kind of a bummer because we were supposed to have all of today in Puerto Madryn but it was evening when we finally arrived. We went to the hostel which is my first time in a hostel and was really really nice, where we all showered and went out to dinner. We went to this restaurant that was made out of a really old boat. The ambience was great, the food was pretty good. But we honestly didn't care, just so happy to be off that bus and clean and enjoying real food again:

     This was our group for the Patagonia trip. From left to right. Monica (China), Amelie (Germany), Laetizia (Belgium), Kitty (England), and of course Zack (Boise as well).

     Afterwards we all headed out (minus Monica) to a Boliche (club). It was pretty fun but nothing like being in Buenos Aires.

Day 43 Thursday- My keys were in my pants which I left in Ben's hotel somewhere in the city when we changed into our Halloween costumes. I of course did not realize this until 4:30 am when I wanted to go home, 2 hours after Ben had gone to sleep. And of course he doesn't have a cell phone here. As a result I spent Halloween night sleeping on the hard wood floor of one of the girls in the dorms here. Then I got to wake up at 9:30 and walk the 15 blocks through the bustling city in the only clothes I had on me... My green lantern costume. Rough start to the day. 

     Spent the rest of the day tracking my keys down and then packing for my trip to Patagonia to go whale watching! Headed to Retiro bus and train station about 2. Pick of the day will be from the bus ride when I get the pictures from the girls cameras.