Backpacking South America

After being amazed from the shores of Puerto Madryn, we were really excited for our tour of Península Valdés the following day.  We left at 7:30am and had a full itinerary which promised to get us up close to the Southern Right Whales, Elephant Seals, Penguins and some land animals as well.    

Our first stop on the tour was one of the more impressive sights; mom’s teaching their babies to swim only 50 yards from the shoreline.  It was so close that you could hear them exhale.  After standing in awe and snapping countless photographs, it was back on the bus. 

The video below gets interesting at about 50 seconds… so be patient.

Our next stop was the park entrance and interpretive center.  We came to find out that if you are an Argentinean, the entrance fee is AR$14, if you’re not, it’s AR$45… So, we had to bite the bullet.

Science Lesson – Skip if you’re not interested and want to see the pictures…

 At the visitor center was a lookout tower where you could see two separate bodies of water.  These two gulfs receive currents from 2 different sources, one comes in from the north and is warm, the other from the south at it is quite cold.  Where the two converge, there is an abundant source of life in the water, which is why so many marine animals make a lengthy stay around Península Valdés. 

After the interpretive center, we spent an hour driving through the middle of the peninsula.  As we have come to realize, the majority of Argentina is extremely, incredibly, unbelievably flat with next to zero inhabitants.  On our bus ride south from Buenos Aires, we would drive for an hour without seeing a house or any sign of life aside from green shrubs and sheep.  This was the same on Península Valdés. 

Elephant Seals

When we were finally on the Atlantic coast of the peninsula, we scrambled down a cliff to walk near the beach to observe the elephant seals.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the males fight for their women.  The male elephant bull seals fight for the female seals, when they win, the female is theirs.  The objective is to collect as many females as possible.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any elephant bull seal fights, they just laid there on the beach with their ladies and babies like big fat seals.  But, it was still cool.  They’re HUGE!   

Penguins…

After visiting the seals, we stopped at a penguin colony, which was tiny compared to our later experience in Punta Tomba (stay tuned…).  I guess I had always expected the penguins to be along the shore or in the water, but in fact, they make their homes on land, up on cliffs. 

Whale Watch

I was a bit concerned that the whale watch boat ride would be a bust.  After hearing countless stories about people not seeing any whales while on whale watches in Bellingham and Boston, I assumed that it was always luck if you saw a whale, but as the pictures show, we got very close to the action and it ended up being one of the many highlights of our day.

Because there are so many whales here, you don’t have to go far to see them surface and jump out of the water. 

Side Story – We went with the tour and not on our own

The best way to see the Peninsula is with a tour group, for several reasons, but the main reason being that the island has only gravel roads, which can be very dangerous to travel if you aren’t familiar with them.   All the guide books and signs along the way will tell you to drive with caution because it is very easy to flip your car.  Unfortunately, we saw that exact scene.  On our way to get on the whale watch boat, we came upon a car that had just rolled over.  The couple was crawling out of the car.  Apparently, they didn’t see the car in front of us until it was too late, they swerved and the car rolled on its side.  Our driver and two people from our group got out to check to make sure everyone was okay and to flip the car back over.  It was two tourists that had rented a car for the day to explore the peninsula at their own pace.  Everybody seemed fine, but quite shaken. 

A beautiful end to the day

We were very lucky that day.  Aside from our bus not flipping over, we got to see lots of wildlife, both on the land and in the water.  We saw whales of course, but also guanacos, which are part of the llama family, armadillos, mara (which look like over-sized rabbits), penguins, and elephant bull seals. 

On our way home, we stopped off at our first stop again, to see the mama whales still conducting classes and to watch the sunset over the hill.  It was a great way to cap an exceptional day.