Lazy Days in Puerto Madryn

So we arrived in Puerto Madryn yesterday in the afternoon. The drive in was nice, but those of you in New Mexico can imagine it perfectly. Picture the drive to Santa Rosa, just past Morarty. A flat mesa with miles of tumble weeds.

can Madryn is a different story. As you get close to the beach there are more trees and plants and youfeel a cool breeze from the ocean most of the time. Just like most touristy beach towns, thestreet by the ocean are packed with restaurants and gift shops. We've had a fun time meandering around and poping in and out of the shops for about the past day.

Other than eating and drinking, we've managed to find a decent pool table. So far, we've found one that was too short (as in too close to the ground), one that had crappy felt and 15mm cues (13mm is a standard bar cue), and all of them had the "tiza" chained to the table. And to top it off, the tables were on the second floor of a bar with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the beach.

But our major accomplishments of the day were suntanning, making a scuba reservation, and getting a rental car. The tanning is self explanitory. Find the beach and lay down. The car is to go to Punta Tombo, which is 170km from here and is overflowing with penguinos right now. They're in the breading part of lifes cycle, so Punto Tombo is like the world's largest penguin signle bar right now. About the only was Aura might be more excited is if it were right after the hatching, when tons of penguin babys would be waddling around to...in fact, I think it might be dangerous to her health to be that excited. Oh no! I'm in trouble. Aura just talked to to people in the hostel who were at Punto Tombo yesterday. They said it IS after the hatching and there ARE tons of baby penguins everywhere. I guess I'll find out if Aura will pee herself when confronted with that much cuteness tomorrow. ;)

We'll we decided that as long as you're in one of the best places in the world to see marine wildlife you might as well go all out. So we booked a boat to go diving with sea lions. They call them "lobos" here, but it was pretty reasonable to get a private boat, all your gear, and guide. After you walk into the dive shop, it's pretty much a done deal. Let me lay the scene for you...You walk into a nice dive shop with new wetsuits that are still in the plastic (and a wetsuit that hasn't been peed in is really hard to find!). There is the cute latina behind the counter and she's about 8 months pregnant and super nice. She shows your hippie girlfriend videos of people diving that are SURROUNDED by sea lions. The swim with the sea lions...they play with the sea lions...the PET the sea lions. There was no chance of escape...it was like shooting fish in a barrel. You might as well have walked me into a bike shop at the foot of the Pyrenees that was having a half-off sale. So that's our plan for Saturday...well let you know how it turns out.

Other than that, we've caught up on our sleep. That's alway's nice. Like my good friend Mario says, "you have to sleep late when you can, and all your bad days will come to an end." He credits The Flaming Lips with that one, but I think he's just being modest.

Love you all! Wish me luck with the penguins...I hear they bite.

Ryan