a micro climate which makes it very dry. A combination of the heat and the winds make it almost desert in places, you can even see sand dunes from the village. We set out to explore, which didn’t take very long as there are only three streets, and then after lunch we went to check out getting a boat trip to see the whales. There were several options, from boats that held forty people to zodiac boats for only ten. We picked one in the middle, a boat for twenty people. The main reason was that it left at five o clock, so most of the tourists wouldn’t be able to go on it as the only bus back to Puerto Madryn was at six.

After a quick return to the hostel to pick up the camera, we were back at the beach and donning life jackets and awaiting the arrival of our boat. We had been told that as it was the end of the season there weren’t as many whales around as over summer but there were still

five or six pairs of mothers and calves. We were both incredibly excited as we walked down the beach to meet our skipper and boat! The skipper was a proper old Captain Birdseye type guy, who spoke great English and was very knowledgeable. He’d been a whale watching guide for 23 years!! The boat was accessed from a raised platform, and we all boarded and then got towed down to the water by a tractor, before being let loose on the ocean waves!! It had been very windy earlier on in the day, but thankfully it had calmed down and once we got beyond the breakers it was a very smooth ride. There was a ladder which led to a platform on top of the skipper, and as soon as he asked for a volunteer to act as lookout, I was up it like a rat up a downspout!! The view was great from up there and pretty soon I spotted a couple of big dark shapes in the water in the distance. We approached very slowly and then cut the engines as we got really close. There was a mother and calf swimming around in the water. These huge