Punta Arenas, Rio Gallegos, and Puerto Madryn

We met up with Andreas - a guy from Germany that we had met on the Ruta 40 trip - in Punta Arenas. There isn't anything all that spectacular about this city aside from the fact that it sits on the Straits of Magellan. We stayed here for a couple of days while waiting for a bus up to Rio Gallegos and then on to Puerto Madryn. The hostel we stayed in, while not exactly nice, included a great breakfast and a very friendy owner who was nice enough to wash our shoes and jackets for us by hand. Puerto Madryn sits on the Eastern Coast of Argentina about 1/2 way up the country and is famous for it's sea lions, sea elephants, penguins and whales on the Valdez Peninsula. The four of us rented a car for the day and spent the day driving on the Peninsula. It was more driving than we expected to get to the various points for viewing the penguins etc. but worth the trip and a nice way to break up the trip to Buenos Aires. It was also a nice, relaxing town and I stayed here for 3 days before the 20 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires. The bus ride proved to be one of the more uncomfortable long trips I had, with rock hard seats and the good fortune of being seated next to a family with six kids and a guy that insisted on using my shoulder as his elbow rest. But I was happy that they weren't throwing-up like the kids next to me on the bus in Peru.