Ohhhh what a lovely world full of bizarre, beautiful creatures! Graceful giant whales, loud harems of Elephant Seals, herds and herds of fluffy sheep, camel-cousin Guanacos, hidden armadillos, monogamous penguin pairs living in colonies of 800 thousand, killer whales who can jump onto the beach to catch prey, birds of every size... What an amazing experience we had in southern most place any of us has been, the Peninsula Valdez/Puerto Madryn area of Patagonia. Must add that the local humans were pretty awesome, easy going and hardy too.
Highlights:
- whale watching in the calm protective bay where the Southern Right Whales go to have their babies and take it easy for their first few months of life.
- going to see Magellan penguins sitting on their eggs and socializing...indescribable.
- celebrating little Diego's 4th birthday
- sharing the experience with great friends
- delicious asado at Tin's friends house in Puerto Madryn
and more...see below
- wonderful hotel
pretty good overview of area
Climbing down to see the elephant seals....OK these creatures are wonderful, but also hideous! I have decided that if people who are very terrible in this life may come back as elephant seals. There's one miserable alpha elephant seal who has to spend his whole life attacking others and even squishing/killing his babies to defend his hold on his harem. His poor 'women' are 1/4 his size and have to deal with him and other giant gross blobs thrusting themselves on them quickly and then screaming at eachother. Yet, they were peaceful to observe. Go figure.
Teo journaling his experience.
Diego's 4th birthday! PENGUINS! :) We set out on a hour ride to go see the penguin colonies on the other side of the peninsula. Amazing ride where we spotted a dozen different types of animals.
Guanacos!
HOLY MOLY! PENGUINS EVERYWHERE! i can't possible begin to show how many penguins there were...they were endlessly visible scattered throughout the area, some marching to the beach and back with food.
Highlights:
- whale watching in the calm protective bay where the Southern Right Whales go to have their babies and take it easy for their first few months of life.
- going to see Magellan penguins sitting on their eggs and socializing...indescribable.
- celebrating little Diego's 4th birthday
- sharing the experience with great friends
- delicious asado at Tin's friends house in Puerto Madryn
and more...see below
- wonderful hotel
pretty good overview of area
Day 1 in Puerto Madryn at a delicious sea-side eatery featuring cool chair and kids play area. We came back here on our last day. Day 1, cold/windy. Last day, hot, dry, sunny.
Walking along boardwalk with Florencia who is Tin's friend's wife. Her, her husband, Marcelo and 2 boys are locals. Their son, Tommy pictured below hung out with us for the day. He and Teo got along great.
Tin and Ceci have 3 kids: Camila above, her big sister Malena with Teo below. Baby Ezequiel featured in last picture.
The kids all together enjoying a tide pool exhibit at the Ecocenter museum
The museum had this sensory aaaamazing installation on whales. Above, walking through baleen like a little piece of whale food. Then you go into a room which plays whale singing very loudly and have vibrations.
Us leaving the museum.
We drove 2 hours to Punto Pyramides where we went to see the whales with their babies in the calm waters. They use tractors to pull and push the boats ashore.
Oh how i love this pic of Teo. Below we see sea elephants on the beach.
amazing birds along sides
We drove into the Peninsula Valdez that 2nd night, along gravel roads with very few cars. A desert so full of life and lack of humans.
Climbing down to see the elephant seals....OK these creatures are wonderful, but also hideous! I have decided that if people who are very terrible in this life may come back as elephant seals. There's one miserable alpha elephant seal who has to spend his whole life attacking others and even squishing/killing his babies to defend his hold on his harem. His poor 'women' are 1/4 his size and have to deal with him and other giant gross blobs thrusting themselves on them quickly and then screaming at eachother. Yet, they were peaceful to observe. Go figure.
Walking even closer. Note, this is NOT the US...there are no forbidden places, just 'please do nots...' We went to cliffs not pictured here where they let kids get way way way too close to the edge...freedom in this very proudly socialist country.
Willie and Paula, parents of Lucia and Diego
non-alpha male about to attack a woman
a fight because non-alpha just jumped on a woman who wasn't 'his'
A basically intact whale bone just hanging-out to do whatever you want with...
Mate and friends
The orcas of the area are unique in that they know how to get out of the water to fetch a seal. We didn't go wading on the beach in these areas.
Diego's 4th birthday! PENGUINS! :) We set out on a hour ride to go see the penguin colonies on the other side of the peninsula. Amazing ride where we spotted a dozen different types of animals.
Guanacos!
Soft round rocks mixed with intact shells.
Back at hotel where you see mate and a sheep being cooked.
Back in Puerto Madryn with hot weather upon us! We decided to try to kayak too! The water was COOOOOOOLLLLLLDDDD!!!
Ezequiel getting big!
