Yet another night bus took us from Bariloche to Puerto Madryn, the Welsh settlement on the Atlantic coast of Patagonian Argentina. In the first example of pre-planning on this entire trip, we actually booked a hostel ahead of time. Not only that, but it was a hostel which offers bus station pick-up. We met our chauffer (really, just some guy that paid a cabbie for us, but hey, it worked) and were whisked away to the comfy, small hostel.
After check-in and a quick nap, I decided to walk along the beachfront. The weather was markedly nicer than the cold rain and wind we got in Bariloche, and the whole town seemed to be out at the beach. I walked a few miles, returned to the hostel, changed into swim trunks, got Robby and we headed straight back to the beach.  Of course, in the 3 minute walk from the hostel to the beach, the sun managed to find a hiding spot behind the clouds, and the ice cold water didn’t seem quite as inviting.
Later, we walked through town, bought a few modest ingredients and transformed them into a spectacular dinner. Most of the meals I’ve made at hostels have been fairly uninspired, but this one was totally worth mentioning. Bacon-wrapped grilled chicken Caesar salad. Just awesome.
We booked ourselves a Peninsula Valdez tour for the next day. It was scheduled to leave at 7am, so we had an early evening. In the morning, we boarded a large van and headed East towards Peninsula Valdez. We stopped at a number of different spots along the peninsula, seeing sea lions, penguins and elephant seals. It reminded me a bit of the Galapagos, but from a bit farther away.
We returned to town in early evening and realized that it was Super Bowl sunday. We wandered throughout the town, trying to find a bar showing the game, but we failed in even finding a bar. Puerto Madryn seems like a nice enough place, but is seriously lacking in places to drink. We got kicked out of the one place that had the game on TV because you are required to order food there. Silly. We ended up back at the hostel, watching the game on a tiny TV in the kitchen, drinking, and trying to explain football to the Argentine guy working the night shift. It seems that without chicken wings, the silly commercials (rebroadcast from ESPN Desportes, we didn’t get any of the US commercials) and a few people who can actually appreciate the game, watching the Super Bowl kind of stinks.
We had plans to head out of Puerto Madryn, and down almost the entire length of Argentina to El Calafate near Glacier National Park in the south. More on that later…