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This is the place to come to see Southern Right Whales and we certainly did that. It was totally amazing. There were so many and really close to the boat. They are huge. I thought there were 2 because the tail was so far from the head but no it was just one really big whale. They have white crustaceans on their head which are unique to each one. One of them swam about a foot under the boat, at one point you could see the head on one side and the tail on the other. If is had decided to surface we would have been turned over. It was just happy to play around us. It floated for some time vertically with it's head stuck out as it was observing us. A whale even jumped out of the water. We saw lots of tail action and water being spurted out of their blow holes. To celebrate my good fortune, I had seafood risotto and a glass of wine overlooking the beach.
Puerto Madryn is a small, sleepy little place on the coast. I liked it here and it was nice to while away the day by wandering around town and along the promenade. It had a really long pier and you could actually see whales even from here. There were a pod of whales and one was floating on it's back. It is mating season at the moment and when a lady whale decides she has a 'headache' she floats on her back to prevent any naughty business. These males were not taking no for an answer and were actually trying to turn her over by dive bombing. It was funny and amazing to watch.
The hostel I stayed at was so cosy. The moment you walked in the door, you felt like you were in someone's home. It had hot showers which were bliss and heating everywhere including the corridors. This was great because my cold and cough were getting worse and it at least made me feel brighter to have some creature comforts. Tonight I have to catch a night bus to Buenos Aires and I was worried about my cough. It is so bad that a woman at the bus station took pity on me and gave me a sweet. An unfortunate elderly gentleman drew the short straw and ended up sitting next to me. He spoke only Spanish but I was able to understand enough the next day to realise I had kept him awake all night. Even during my sleep I had not stopped. He felt it was time I stopped smoking!!! I was horrified and told him I didn't smoke. He just shrugged his shoulders as if he knew otherwise. I was relieved to get off the bus and cough in peace all the way to the hostel!
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robin from california hahaha..poor old man. Well Franklin was my bus mate for 18 hours...and I can say we did bond and it was really fun actually....well in some ways it was fun. Hang in there...and thanks for the update.