When we arrived in Puerto Madryn (the province of Chubut´s third biggest city, there are only five in all) two days ago it was 35C... roasting, the wind was blowing from the desert to the sea, the beaches were packed. Yesterday it was 25C and the wind was blowing off the Atlantic, we went for a swim anyway, the water was lovely, very few people about and lots of fun waves. Today, back to warmth again. Weird.

We wandered over to Punto Tombo, a penguin colony, there are 170000 breeding pairs, you find them all over the place, in hollows, under bushes, in holes in the ground, just standing around breathing heavily (they don´t sweat much, and have to cool down like dogs). Then you get to the beach and it´s like Blackpool in the fifties, or Mar del Plata in high summer.

After the penguins we went to Gaiman, a Welsh village, for tea. It was overpriced for what we got (all you could eat cakes and tea, we could tell that some of the fellow excusionistas were not happy, this was instead of meat!) but a couple of pots of proper tea with milk hit the spot for me and Liz.  ¶ 12:09 AM