Having a WHALE of a time in Puerto Madryn

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I am not a city gal, and so did not like the prospect of staying in Buenos Aires for too long, although by the end of it, I didn’t want to leave, especially as the Lindas were going to a very exciting party that weekend. I decided to see whales. So there I went again, hopping onto a eighteen hour bus from Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn. Three Hollywood blockbusters, one bingo game, one hot dinner and a breakfast later, I arrived to Puerto Madryn, a quiet little town off the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.

The town struck me as being very British with its neat streets and gardens. No surprise, as this is the place that the Welsh immigrants settled to escape persecution from the English all those years ago. I saw many red-haired people about. Most of the people, I was told are of mixed Gallic and Spanish/Italian descent. That day, I went for a walk by the beach - and it was there that I saw five whales frolicking in the shallow waters near the beach, blowing air through their air holey things. It was surreal - never get this in Scotland (I did have a thought about the hype about the whale swimming up the Thames!).

I was put into a Spanish speaking whale watching tour. Good for my Spanish, I consoled myself. We drove to Peninsula Valdes passing through endless cow farming shrub land, passing the odd rabbit or two. The guide talked about wildlife and fauna and even had teddy whales and sea lions to demonstrate. I felt embarrassed when I stopped him to ask what a particular word meant, thinking it was something technical but it was a rather boring word ‘ground’. I kept my mouth shut after that.

We took the boat into the ocean to see the whales. They guarantee you your money back if you don’t see a whale. Easy to see why - they are EVERYWHERE. They swim up to the warmer shores from the Antarctic to have their babies. Now was the perfect time to visit. At one point there were four or five swimming around and underneath our boat…one came close enough I could have touched out and kissed it! I know this sounds silly but they are MASSIVE - Southern Right Whales. The have some kind of fungi foamy stuff growing off them, so their colour is black and yellow. After the boat had sped along bumpily I began to feel sea sick and so sat down, crossing my arms in agony. The guide kept prodding me…’look look, can you see that?’
‘once you’ve seen one, you seen them all…’ were my sentiments and I think it showed!

Seriously though, it was a trip worthwhile. After the whale watching, it was more wildlife education around Valdes with the Spanish speaking group. Here we saw elephant seals lying on the beach lazily, opening their mouths occasionally…what a life!

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Photos

Puerto Madryn beach
It's normal to see whales blowing away on the shore

Puerto Madryn beach
Southern Right whale close to our boat

Puerto Madryn beach
there is no zoom on this

Puerto Pyramides
elephant seals basking

Puerto Pyramides
another salt lake dessert thing

Comments

[mum]

moi bor bhal palu.