Twenty-three hours on a bus seems like a forever long ride...and it is. But I must say that it was well worth it and I would do it again to experience something as amazing as we just did. We arrived in Puerto Madryn around mid-afternoon and started planning our adventure. Because we, and most other backpackers like us, try with every bone in their body to avoid tours (unless it's ice climbing or gator hunting) we needed to figure out a way to complete this journey solo. Luckily, we met Jane and Ramey (a french couple in their eleventh month of a twelve month journey around the world) on our bus ride who also wanted to avoid a tour, so we hooked up with them and the four of us started planning our epic trip.
About two hours north of Puerto Madryn is Peninsula Valdes This peninsula is known for its abundance of sea animals visible from the shore or from a short boat ride away. The available tours take you from Puerto Madryn to the peninsula in one day and you have a short amount of time at each point of interest. The DIY (do it yourself) tour involves renting a car and spending as much time on the peninsula as you want. This is where Mercedes comes in. As you can see, she wasn't actually a Mercedes, but she sure was classy.
We called it a day after that and Mercedes took us back to Puerto Madryn. The DIY trip to the peninsula was a huge success and I still can't believe how amazing it was to be that close to the whales.
We are currently on another long bus ride (13 hours) and the bus stewardess (wannabe flight attendant who takes his job way too seriously) is not letting Jonathan and I sit together. Our assigned seats are across the aisle from each other. The seat next to me is empty...