That last blog post covered only the first week out of three of my time in Argentina with Heather. I'm going to complete my trip report in several segments.
Puerto Madryn is the Welsh-settled town on the Atlantic coast of northern Patagonia that serves as the main base for excursions to the Peninsula Valdés biosphere and surrounding areas, which are well-known for their rich and diverse wildlife (especially marine wildlife.) The landscape of that area is quite drab, just rocky, dusty plains and little shrubs, but absolutely astounding animal life (and the pleasant weather, the best we had in Argentina) really made us glad we had been able to work this stop into our schedule.
We stayed in Puerto Madryn for two full days, conveniently allowing us to experience the two main day-long tours that are offered in the area: (1) around the peninsula, to see Southern Right Whales, sea lions, elephant seals, penguins, and orcas (not in season while we were there); and (2) down the coast, to see Commerson's dolphins and the largest colony of Magellanic penguins in the world. Both trips were a little cookie-cutter, as we simply piled in a van with 25 other tourists and were carted around to the major viewing points, and most of the time was spent in transit, but it was all well worth it.
So, the first day: on to the peninsula! We first headed for the only sizable human settlement on the peninsula, a small town of about 200 occupants that serves as the base for whale-watching boat trips. We piled in a boat and set off. We were moving for quite a while—it turned out that this was the end of the whale-watching season, and the whales were moving out of the bay. In fact, they told us that it was the last day of the season that they'd run the whale tours. We were a little afraid we wouldn't see anything, even after going all that distance, but luckily we chanced upon a mother and her calf. It was amazing to see how big they were, but they weren't that showy, so it was a little anticlimactic.
Sea lions on a rock on the way to see whales
Southern right whales: a mother and her calf.
Next up, we headed to the east side of the peninsula to visit a few beaches where sea lions and elephant seals lounging around. A penguin colony was nearby, too. One of the beaches, Punta Norte, is internationally famous because the orcas (killer whales) that frequent there have a unique hunting tactic of temporarily stranding themselves on the beach to grab a baby sea lion, before letting the tide wash them back out again. Unfortunately, it wasn't orca season, so we didn't see any (and apparently, it's extremely rare to see this hunting tactic in season, too.)
Lazy elephant seals
Heather in front of the beach at Punta Cantor
Armadillo!
Guanacos by the road during the ride across the peninsula
The second day-long excursion was lesser-hyped than the first, but we found it to be much more exciting and fun. That's probably because of the personalities of the main animals of the day: the playful dolphin and the unashamedly cute penguin. We went first to the coastal town of Puerto Rawson, got on a boat, and traveled several miles out to sea until dolphins started checking us out. Eventually, we were surrounded by them, playing around and seeming to have a grand old time. Those dolphins can swim fast, too—at one point, another boat came along side and the two boats sped in parallel motion, with dolphins leading right under the prow of the boat the whole time.
Big ugly bull sea lion with his harem of females. Interesting fact: female sea lions are not pregnant something like 2 weeks out of the year.
Cool boat on the way out to see dolphins
Playing with the dolphins!
Short video of some dolphins surfacing.
Lazy bull seal
The dolphins were so much fun, but our next stop turned out to be my favorite of the Peninsula Valdés area (and in the running for my favorite place of the entire trip.) Punta Tombo is a rocky peninsula 2-3 hours south of Puerto Madryn that is the site of the largest colony of Magellanic penguins in the world—over a half million while we were there, since the babies had hatched a month previously, and the adults and adolescents were still around, too. Penguins are perhaps my new favorite animal—they're SO cute, even when just sleeping or standing still. And when they move, they can't help being ridiculously funny. It was a delight to walk among the penguin nests. At the colony, they have paths and fences that restrict where you can walk, but plenty of penguins are inside the fences, and (though you're advised not to touch them, since they bite) it's very easy to interact with them through body language. And there are SO MANY of them there.
Here, it's pretty obvious who has the right-of-way.
Making friends!
"You must obey safety precautions!"
From here, we could watch the penguins practice their swimming. The adults were quite adept, while the adolescents were hilariously clumsy.
Learning how to pose, from a master of the art
About to jump in…
Enjoying the entertainment
Hmmmmm! What's this curious being??
Fields of penguins
Nesting grounds
What a beautiful place.
That finishes the tale of our stop in Puerto Madryn. Next up: our epic backpacking adventure in Torres del Paine National Park, in southern Chilean Patagonia!
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