Thursday, Feb 9th--Puerto Madryn, Argentina

     I put the above photo to show you the large bay that protects the harbor from big waves.  Because it is so protected, southern right whales come here between June and December to raise their young.  Also on the Valdes Peninsula, there are sea lions, elephant seals, Magellanic penguins, and egrets.  Part of the bay is very shallow as you will see in the photos I took today.  We left the pier at 8am for our "Highlights of Puerto Madryn and Gaiman" tour and the ocean was very close to the shore line, but when we returned at noon, it was a couple hundred yards further out.
     In 1865 a group of Welsh people left Great Britain as a result of religious prosecution and came here to establish a colony of their own.  Our tour took us on a 90 minute bus ride to the Welsh town of Gaiman which is along a river valley.  On our drive there we saw nothing but arid waste land with only low, small leafed and thorny shrubs.  The annual rainfall is only 10 inches so the Welsh used irrigation from the river to grow crops and raise cattle and sheep in the valley.
     Nowadays, the big industries here are aluminum processing and wool from sheep.  In the port there is a huge aluminum processing plant where ore is brought here from Brazil on ships, unloaded by a long conveyor belt extending from the industrial pier to the plant, and refined.  The breed of sheep raised in this part of Patagonia produces some of the finest wool in the world.  On our bus ride we saw where the sheared wool is washed before being exported.  Tourism is only about 15% of the economy and is mostly related to scuba diving and aquatic animals viewing.
     Our tour was basically 3 hours of bus riding to have hot tea, scones, and cakes at a traditional Welsh restaurant.  Countryside enroute was most boring and a lot like Arizona but Rebecca got a nap in.  Back on ship we had lunch and I walked back into the town to take some photos and check things out.  It too was boring so did not last long ashore.  It was a beautiful day with lots of sun, some wind (apparently normal for here), and 76F.
     As we dined at a window table in Prime 7 last night we observed a beautiful sunset.  Not a cloud in the sky so was hoping to get the "green" flash just after sun goes below horizon.  I have only seen it one time and that was when we were on our world cruise on evening.  Some friends ask us if we saw the beautiful full moon reflecting off the ocean last night.  Will check that out tonight and try to get photo of it for you.  We have another pre-dinner show this evening at 6pm with ship's singers and dancers.  I have organized a cocktail get-together at 6:45 for our Macha Picchu group.  Then at 8pm, as Regent "Platinum" level (200 nights or more on Regent cruises) we have been invited to have a preview dinner in an Italian specialty restaurant which will debut on Regent ships this coming June.  It will be called "Sette Mari".