No Hay Animales

Alex looking for runaway penguins
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Peninsula Valdez is famous for being able to view all sorts of exciting animals and birds, from penguins and cormarants to whales, orcas and sealions.

And you will see some of these if you go anytime of year but the end of April/start of May.  Oh dear.  However, I can say that we were very lucky to see some sealions and elephant seals playing in the waves and on the rocks.  About 50 of them, not 10,000 as there are in high Jan/Feb.  We also saw some orcas (killer whales) off the coast, now that was quite exciting.  There were about 5 of them travelling in a family group.  Apparently there are only about 15 that live in the area of the peninsula, and they normally head off to the high seas towards the end of April.  You may have seen some of these orcas on television if you are a nature programme fan as Peninsula Valdez is where they famously hurtle onto the beach at high speed to grab baby seals.  This is quite a common occurence in February and March.  But I think we were lucky to see them at all.

I nearly tripped over one of the little beasts

A southern-right-whale
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Our closest nature experience was as usual in the car park.  A hairy armadillo or two could be found scavenging here, I nearly tripped over one of the little beasts as it scuttled up behind me to sniff my shoes.