Day 41 December 20th 2006, P P Pick up a Penguin - Punta Tombo, Gaimen, Trelew

Gaimen touted as a Welsh village in Argentina is about as Welsh as Slough and really not worth a visit, yes it does have some historical significance but if you have spent any time in the Wales this place will be a disappointment.

Trelew is also noticeably not worth visiting. Patagonia is famous for the number of dinosaur fossils found here and in Trelew some of these finds are hosted in a dinosaur museum. Now either I really have become thick over the last couple of months (if not before) and the museum was as it should be, or everything thing in there was totally back to front.

The exhibition started with Man and worked its way back to the big bang, visiting each time period section it was difficult to build on the last. Surely they should have started with the big bang and gone forward in time allowing the visitor to build up a picture of the Earth´s history.

Punto Tombo on the other hand is worth the 4 hour round trip. With a Magellanic Penguin population during breeding season of almost 1 million birds it was a spectacular site to behold. It was strange though as you normally envisage penguins with ice and snow not gravel and trees, under which they made their burrows.

Are you sure this is the Antarctic? I don´t remember there being any trees and where's all the Ice

When I told friends and colleagues that I was taking off for a year with Shelley to go travelling one of the most common comments was "you will certainly learn a lot". This is very true but on our travels I occasionally come across something that I really don´t understand.

For example my understanding of cameras is that you buy big lenses to take pictures of things far away, not to walk to within a foot of a Penguin with a foot long lens to take a picture of it, am I missing something here? Admittedly it did seem to be only American and German tourists doing this so perhaps a cultural thing. The Penguins didn´t seem too put out by this.

Don't just stand there go and get me some more fish

Listening to the guide book today we found a great steak restaurant which looked like a canteen at a trailer park and served chili sauce in old plastic coca cola bottles, the steak was great.

Highlights: Fluffy Penguin chicks