separate parcels instead. It cost more but it seemed like the only way to avoid carrying the parcels around over the weekend. That night there was a huge thunderstorm, so we passed away the time in our room watching a good film, can’t remember the name I’m afraid!!

After dragging ourselves out of bed at 6am we ended up standing around in the rain waiting for our bus to show up! It was coming from Buenos Aires and arrived 45 minutes late!! It wasn’t a bad journey in the end, and the plentiful veggie food for lunch helped!! As we headed south we drove into the Patagonian Steppe, a seemingly infinite parched grasslands which reminded us very much of Mongolia or the Australian outback. After ten and a half hours we arrived in Puerto Madryn, too late for the connecting bus to the peninsula, and then found that the four hostels in our guidebooks were all full!! Nightmare!! We did eventually find

a budget hotel which was ok-ish, and went to book our bus tickets to Puerto Piramides in the morning, as well as a hostel room there. The evenings entertainment consisted of the local pool hall. We didn’t have a game being as it was so busy, but we did have a couple of cheap beers and a passable pizza. The pace reminded us of a dodgy youth club, but we didn’t feel like venturing elsewhere due to the torrential rain!!

We got our bus the next day at 9.30, and realised that we were definitely not going to have the place to ourselves - there were 3 buses full of tourists waiting!! We’d read that the majority of people just go for the day though, so figured it would quieten down when the bus returned later on. The journey was about a couple of hours, and on arrival we headed straight to our hostel. It was quite a basic place, but clean and comfortable, so would do us fine!! The peninsula has