Had a great day. Went to the nature reserve on Peninsula Valdés, which is as the name indicates, a peninsula, that juts out in the Atlantic ocean. David Attenborough would have envied me of the day (but I believe he might have something else on his mind these days, poor guy). I saw Magellanic penguins, which were ungainly and clumsy but oh so cute, elephant seals and sea lions.

Since the elephant seal bulls have gone to the Antarctic everything was very quiet in the groups of pregnant females, they just sunbathed, wiggled their flippers and shovelled gravel and sand over themselves and others as a cooling method. Most of them too lazy to get up and cool off in the sea. Then wiggled their flippers a bit more, scratched their chests, sighed and kept on sunbathing. Nothing much to do anyway, just wait until they have pups to attend to. Imagine being a seal, then it's actually an asset to be fat. And you're still fit as a fiddle.

The sea lion colonies were not as peaceful, the air was thick with testosterone and the consequent cacophonous roars and macho show-offs, threats and fights (svona klukkan4-fyrir-utan-ball-í-Valaskjálf stemming (yes, that was Icelandic, but it's an untranslatable cultural phenomenum)). Even though the mating season is now almost over and it's settled who belongs to who's harem - jealousy makes the world go round. And when elephant seals happened to be basking close to the uproar they opened one eye and looked in the direction of the sea lions with "fergodsake keep it down, you spoilsports" written all over their pretty faces. Then sighed, scooped a bit more sand over them, scratched their chests and kept on enjoying the lovely yellow round thing up there.

But it was a very dusty day, so I'm off to take a shower. And tomorrow I'll go on a looong bustrip to Buenos Aires. Luckily I've got enough to read and a friend of mine sent me a mindboggling riddle which I intend to tackle on the way, he promised me that the puzzle has a legitimate answer and I'm stubborn as a mule. I've got 20 hrs. to kill so I better have an answer when I get to Buenos Aires.