Puerto Madryn

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After our rain soaked adventure in El Chalten yesterday we flew northeast to Puerto Madryn where we are now in yet another bus to the east coast village of Puerto Piramides for a boat ride to the whales. Nothing in this part of the world is within walking distance. The whales are waiting for us and we get an unexpected show of some young ‘uns cavorting about their mothers. These are the “southern right whales” believing in all things conservative and come to this small Golfo Nuevo to hatch. Have never seen whales so up close before and our boat driver kinda cheats the rules and puts us right over the top of one pair. Whale watching in California/Hawaii will be a ho-hum affair after going eyeball to eyeball with these guys.

But there is more! We are now off to the eastern side of Peninsula Valdes to see elephant seals. Bigger than the California variety, the guys are not too active today as mating season has past and they are just lying about having a smoke. But I am looking at the ominous black dorsal fins of a pod of orcas circling about 50 yards off the coast. The tide is coming in and this is an ideal time for seal pup ceviche. The orcas beach themselves at up to 50km per hour attempting to grab a pup and you can hear the screams from here. Not really…I don’t think the pups can scream but it is a natural world spectacle and I have my sand pitted eyeballs pealed. You see the wind has picked up a bit from our morning commune with the whales. As 60 mph gales impregnate sand deep into all our orifices, I quickly check to see if I still have the ear doctor’s phone number in Buenos Aries.

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Comments

[Mike Merrick]

Spider
What a lovely tarantula! Where's the picture of it sitting on your hand, Danny?