Walking with penguins in northern Patagonia

South America » Argentina » Chubut » Puerto Madryn
March 3rd 2010

Published: March 14th 2010

Edit Blog Post

Malteaser

P1030632

After our crazy week in Buenos Aires we moved onto northern Patagonia. I had forgotten in my haste with the previous blog to tell two key facts that meant we had experienced BA 100%. The first that we got massively ripped off by a taxi driver and the second that we were handed fake money, its not a trip to Beunos Aires without these hiccups. It was no small secret that the taxis drivers outside our hostel were drug dealers masquerading as taxi drivers! According to our guide in northern patagonia if you´ve not tried Matte tea, you´ve not visited Argentina...so we´ll say the same about our misfortunes in BA!

We had fully psyched ourselves up for cold weather down in Patagonia, afterall we are suspiciously close to Antartica, but this was not to be - it was beautiful sunshine not far off 30 degrees. Our main reason for visiting this area was to see some wildlife, to get some fresh air, to eat well and not drink so well! I have never been interested in zoos or viewing animals in captivity, so seeing animals in their natural habitat is truly fantastic for me! It´s all about the wildlife in

P1030707

Punto tombo

Puerto Madryn, the surrounding landscape is not blessed with natural beauty. I have never been somewhere so lifeless and barren in my entire life, it hardly ever rains and the scenery does not change from flat, flat arid land for mile upon mile. The sky looks unbelievably huge and you can´t help but feel totally isolated and insignificant.

Anyway onto the tours - we blew the budget visiting two areas: Peninsular Valdes and Punto Tombo. The first to see penguins, mischevious sea lions and adorable sea lion cubs, massive ugly elephant seals...and if we had been very lucky (which we incidently weren´t) killer wales. Killer whales perform a very unique proceedure during this time of year in Peninsular Valdes (those eager Planet Earth viewers among we know what I am talking about) where the Killer Whales intentionally beach themselves in order to feed on sea lion pups playing in the waves. Part of me would have been overawed to have seen a killer whale so close but at the same time one of those adoreable baby seals would have been munched for dinner - catch 22 situation! I fell in love with the sea lions and their mischevious, inquisitive

P1030670

character. Watching the mothers and babies interracting was very similar to watching a field of ewes and lambs in the English countryside, the noises between the two groups was so similar if I closed my eyes I could have confused myself.

Our second day of touring the area was spent visiting Punto Tombo to see a massive colony of Magellenic Penguins, by massive I mean nearing a million, and also take a boat out to see Black and white Dolphins. We were lucky that we got to see a mother and baby dolphin up very close - this was not without us being sat there for an hour without seeing anything and getting depressed. Afterwards luck continued to favour us and we saw many many schools of them jumping through the waves. Walking with the penguins was without doubt one of my highlights though, they are comical little creatures who love to pose, and are incredibly friendly, I never got tired of watching them waddling around like toddlers in nappies. They make the most incredible noises for something so very small though, sounds like a donkey braying.

It was inevitable that time would pass very quickly before I

P1030713

Penguin love in Punto Tombo

had an Emilie should-have-been-born-blonde moment too share with you all. Our first night in our quiet hostel in Puerto Madryn I managed to fall out of bed, this happened because I confused the fact I was on the top bunk and just got out of bed, fell to the floor half asleep and woke up the dorm. We have also decided that Harry has regressed to the behaviour of baby - put her in a moving vehicle and she falls asleep, unpaved roads are a particular favourite. No matter how stunning the scenery you can guarrantee she will have nodded off.....4 days in a jeep on the salt flats in Bolivia later in our trip is looking promising!!

Additional photos below

Photos: 31, Displayed: 24