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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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We arrived in the middle of a storm and decided that instead of getting a taxi to the peninsula that we'd stay in Puerto Madryn. We were persuaded by the girl at the tourist information desk to check into a hostel called Hi Patagonia. It was a really friendly place but incredibly noisy so we weren't expecting to get any sleep here.
Our first little tiki-tour was a 400km round trip south to Punta Tomba. Here they have the largest colony of Magellanic Penguins, literally hundreds of thousands of them. The end of November is their hatching season, so hundreds of adults were in their holes, watching their new born chicks - fluffy grey things that hadn't quite figured out to walk yet. We walked through the colony taking in the magnificent cliff top views that look down onto beautiful beaches littered with penguins. As this is a protected area, the penguins have freedom to roam one of the nicest beaches we'd seen without any intrusion from humans. A slightly surreal sight was to see these penguins wandering around the cliff tops along with the guanacos (a type of llama) with whom they share the area.
On route we stopped at a fishing village called Rawson. Here we boarded a small boat and went off to see the Commerson Dolphin that inhabit this coast. These are the smallest dolphins in the world and recognisable by their black and white banded body.
Last stop of the day was a place called Gaiman. This is where the first Welsh immigrants to Argentina settled and is famous for retaining their culture including teaching Welsh at primary schools. Argentines think it is really exciting to come here and have high tea just like they do in "Wales, England". As a result the tea houses are able to charge $10 for a cup of PG tips and a couple of scones.
Friday started nice and early with another road trip, this time to the north of Puerto Madryn to Peninsula Valdes. The peninsula is mainly farmland but coastal areas are protected due to the marine animal inhabitations. More Magellanic Penguins, followed by watching the enormous elephant seals roll around on the beach. These things weigh up to 3,000kg and seem to exhaust themselves after attempting to move just a few metres with what looks like a gargantuan caterpillar crawl. Very cute faces though. Those big liquid eyes and chubby cheeks are endearing.
We then headed to the south side of the penisula where we boarded an old trawler and headed out into the cove to do a spot of whale watching. The Southern Right Whale use these waters as a breeding ground during October and November so our timing coincided with mothers teaching their calves to dive preparing them for their journey back out into the Atlantic. The first 20 minutes or so we sialed out into the cove squinting our eyes in the hope of seeing a whale or two. We were beginning to feel that we were going to be unlucky and not see one at all. Then all of a sudden we saw a couple of water spays coiming out of the sea in the distance. Then as we got closer we could make out these huge mammals swimming near the surface. Even at this distance this was exciting enough. However we were in for an amazing sight when a mother and inquisitive calf swum right up to the boat. The calf must have been wondering who we were as it had a good look around and swum under the boat a couple of times. It was amazing to see them up so close.
We also had an added bonus on the trip when a hairy armadillo came running out of the bushes to terrorise Suse.
We spent the remainder of our stay in Puerto Madryn lazing on the beach and windsurfing. We were trying to absorb every drop of sunshine before we had to endure the cold environment of Ushuaia.
previous travel blog entry
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