Mar Del Average to Puerto Madryn

I shouldn´t have badmouthed Skegness. Friday was cloudy and wet all day, so we were restricted to internet cafes and our hostel room. We did try to have a bit of an explore while the rains withheld, but without the sunbathing, there´s not too much to do. We explored the market, and resisted the urge to buy a Rip Carl t-shirt, then had a walk along the pier, before running for cover as the heavens opened.

Saturday was forecast for more rain. This led me to believe I could get away without sun cream on. Big mistake. After about an hour of cloudy but sunny skies and a concealing breeze, I was red-faced, in both senses of the word. Feeling pretty tender, we caught our overnight bus to Puerto Madryn, a fairly small Atlantic coastal city, formed by Welsh settlers in the 1800s.

By the time I got here, I wasn´t feeling my best - we hadn´t been able to shower since leaving the beach, I was tired, sunburnt and hot and bothered. Add to this the fact that the hostel-booking site we had used to book accommodation - again - got our reservation wrong, I wasn´t in the best of moods. I chose to amuse myself with the crazy old woman that we had a heated debate with about our room. She kept calling Kyle, ´Kill´before getting corrected, so when she asked me how to pronounce it, I said, ´Colin,´which she bought hook, line and sinker. Much to Kyle´s annoyance. As was the fact that the landlord kept called the penguins, ´pin guins,´which I started to drop into conversation myself, which Kyle couldn´t keep a straight face at. "Tell me again, where can we see pin guins?"

Last night we took a long walk to the Patagonia Ecological Centre - which pretty much does what it says on the tin. We were invited to attend a talk on the pin guins of Patagonia, which I asked, "Is it worth seeing if you don´t speak Spanish. "Yes," I was told, as there was visuals. As soon as we were sat down I made the comment, "We better not get any audience participation here, or my sunburn´s going to get even redder." It happened. We were asked where we all came from. Luckily, I had spouted this schpiel before to others and thought I had got away with it. I could have, but the woman could have called me a stupid sunburnt tourist and I wouldn´t have had a clue. Anyway, the talk was pretty much pointless.

In fact, it was pretty much exactly like uni - I was sat in a lecture theatre, not understanding a single word the person was saying and counting down the minutes.

I already have taken a shine to Puerto Madryn. It´s a nice little port with a beautiful view, overlooking the ocean. There´s a less holiday-resort feel to it and our hostel is probably the nicest we´ve stayed in so far. The beaches are much less touristy, much quieter and the sea water is spot on.

Today we hired some bicycles and cycled 17 kilometres to Punta Loma, where there is a sealion rookery outlook. We had been looking forward to the cycle, until we realised the track was mostly sand and gravel, we were battling against a strong wind in the baking sunshine, without shade for the whole journey and every time a car went by we got covered in dust. Nevertheless, the view of the sealions was (probably) worth it (I was knackered). We had lunch on the beach, which we pretty much had to ourselves, and a little paddle for good measure, too. After the cycle home, I was well and truly shattered and was relieved to get in some trademark lying down.