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Having spent many an hour in a travel agency booking all our trips and flights in Patagonia we set off for the first leg which was an 18 hour bus trip from Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn. There was nearly tears from the 6 of us when we realised it was a semi-cama bus, which is basically just a big reclining chair, as apposed to the full sleeper we had the last time.......ah well it couldn't get much worse....no actually it could when we soon realised there was what looked like a 2 hour old baby sitting in front of us!! Needless to say it was a sleepless night full of crying an nappy changing and general discontent among the Danirish!
We quicly got over that when we finally arrived in Puerto Madryn which is a small city that serves as the jumping off point for all the wildlife trips. Lots to see around here wildlife wise- its where Southern Wright Whales come to mate and breed, the same with penguins, elephant seals and a host of other wildlife like hawks, eagles, Guanacos (like lamas) etc etc. Its also famous for a certain spot where Killer whales beach themselves trying to catch seals (any David Attenborough fans out there??). This doesn't happen until February though and not sure of the girls would have stomached this!
Puerto Madryn itself is a sleepy little city but quite cool and nice to walk around (the temperatures werent too bad as it was summer but jumpers and long johns required as evening wear!).
So following a day of relaxing it was time head to Peninsual Valdes about an hour from Puerto Madryn. I'm not gonna harp on too much about the wildlife as the pics explain themselves! This was a full day tour where we saw Elephant seals, Penguins but undoubtedly the highlight was the whale watching. At this time of the year all the 'business' is finished but all the calves have just been born. The bay is absolutely packed with mother and baby whales so amazing to see them so close.....the calves really curious and swimming right up to have a look at you! At times they were literally 2 or 3 feet away and was spectacular!
The next days tour was all about the penguins in a place called Punto Tombo - this is a breeding colony of about 500,000 penguins and is the largest outside of Antartica. It was a strange feeling walking among all these penguins (including babies hidden in the nest...ahhh). Its great to see them in their natural habitat and not stuck in a zoo somewhere! Literally everywhere you looked for miles there was penguins pattering about.....most in the nest or walking to the sea for food ...which as you came to the end of the trail you could watch them going fishing and jumping into the waves.
Goes without saying Andrea was like a giddy goat all day (for those who don't know Andrea has a slight penguin obsession) and the pictures up here are only a fraction of what were taken on the day!
All in all a busy few days of tours but absolutely amazing......next up El Calafate right down the tip of Argentina..

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