Puerto Madryn

After a 19 hours bus ride, I reached Puerto Madryn. 1322 km South of Buenos Aires. With busstops in different places, the ride is probably a little longer and in some places we drove on gravel roads, as the road was under repair.

The city is in a bay behind the Peninsula Valdes, which is the real reason for my visit. There is a beach right in the center of the town with a long promenade. The water does not look clean though, but it is a popular place for scuba diving, as it is possible to dive with sea lions and other marine animals. The city’s location between Valdes and to the south, a big penguin colony Porto Tomba, have made it a tourist magnet.

Due to the placing of a large aluminum factory, the only one in Argentina and some other industries, the city grew very fast. Before it was a small sleepy village, and it seems to have grown too fast. On a gray day it was actually not a pretty city, and it is not my impression, that much is happening, but it is popular not least in the period from June to December, where the bay between the town and the peninsula is home to whales. The area that also includes the city of Trelew, was originally build by a colony of Welsh people, and in several places there were signs in both Spanish and Gaelic. Both city names are also named after Welsh pioneers.

Photo Puerto Madryn

Peninsula Valdes

The major attraction is as mentioned the peninsula Valdes, which is privately owned, but are home to large colonies of marine mammals. At the beginning of the season, there are so many whales, that they come right up to the shore and can be seen from the beach in Puerto Madryn and the small town of Puerto Piramides at Valdes. End November, when I was there, it is late in the season, but I was lucky to see two females with their young cubs. They are the ones that remain at this time. The whale Eubalaena australis also called the Southern Right Whale because it regards to be the right one. It was easy to catch, swims slowly, are curious and often come close to the boats. Today it is of course not allowed to hunt the whales. It has a huge head with a lot og big white spots, can grow up to 18 meters long and weigh 80 tons.

It was an amazing sight to see these big animals swimming fairly close to the boat. I remember while trying to zoom in with my camera, the mother popped op in front of my eye and almost gave me a chock, as it was so big.

On the way back to the port of Pyramides, we also saw dolphins and although the trip was already running late, we should of course see them. The crew was almost as happy and exited as we were, even though they see them all the time.

After the whale tour, we continued around the peninsula, where besides seeing sheep, cattle, horses we saw Guanacos, which are from the llama family. They live wild throughout Patagonia. Some places they are protected, but in others it is OK to catch them to keep the numbers down.

As both the driver and out guide were very good spotting animals along the way, we saw Maras, which is a like a hare or rabbit. We also saw what for me is a normal hare but here called a Europen hare. A Nandu (Lesser- Rhea) which is a mini ostrich and an armadillo called Alami. Only problem is that to get a picture, it has to be from the van. sometimes they are far away and often they are crossing the road very fast. Most of them definitely don’t stand still and pose for the camera.

On the northern tip. which had some really nice colors, we went for a walk to look down on colonies of elephant seals and sea lions lying on the beach.

Down the cost we passed a small colony og penguins and then even more luck. That day we also saw Orcas or Killer Wales. It is of course at a distance, but is a great experience to see them. There were at least 6 and some mentioned 9 in total which out og a colony of 30 is a pretty good number.

The Orcas in front of us were playing or were in search of food. There were many sea lions on the beach, so I assume they hoped one of them would jump in for swim. After a while, they turned and swam back again, which gave us the opportunity to see them once more as we also had to go back that way. Our driver was happy to give us another stop and give us a little more for our money. At the time, our trip had already exceeded the schedule, and we had a little more than an hours drive back to the city yet they still gave us more time.

Lovely and impressive with such enthusiastic people – guide and driver and also the boatcrew – that they were happy to give us plenty of time.

Back at my hostel there were great “envy” as we were the only people that had seen killer whales, which made the joy even better. I did notice already when we were watching them, that this was a big moment. I have since found out that you actually have to be very lucky to see them. I have not yet met any other person, who have visited the place and had the experience and that even include someone who has lived in Puerto Madryn. Amazing to have one day and then get the experience.

We lacked only that both the Orcas and the Whales jumped a little more in the water, so we could get some more amazing photos. You can never get enough😀. They don’t do that very often though so I should probably have spent more than one day to get that catch. To my great annoyance, there were actually two orcas jumping half out of the water on one of my pictures. Annoying because I did not see it, and because my camera did not focus on them.

Ponta Tombo

Ponta Tombo is a huge penguin colony with about 7 to 800,000 penguins. They live under bushes or in holes in the ground. I have seen penguins before, but they are funny animals, and you can get so close to them. So I went to Punta Tomba, where we could go for a walk in a about two hours and follow the giant colony. Some live far away, others live right by the path / footbridge. The rule is, that if a penguin crosses the path, you must stop and wait until they have crossed, which they actually do rather quickly. We saw new born babies who were sheltered by their mother. Some brooded still on the egg(s), but many others walked around on the way to or from the water. At one place we saw a penguin fight between three penguins. One was beaten until it bled, and as we passed the place on the way back they had stop fighting, but the wounded penguin was still covered in blood.

There were obviously a lot of people on the trail, but it was not too bad, and our group was only 4 plus our guide, so it was a very relaxing trip.

Elephant seals – my new favorite animals

On the way home from Punta Tomba we stopped at a small bay with elephant seals. We were the only people on the beach along with approximately 15 to 20 elephant seals, and it was amazing to get so close to them. Usually we see them only from a distance. They seemed to be indifferent to us. Looked at us, a few came close, but they were very peaceful. We were allowed to sit and study them for an hour, and although they are very relaxed at this time when they switch winter coat, there was a lot of activity between them. I was totally infatuated with the large animals. It was primarily females, probably belonging to the same harem, so as it only males that have the elephant nose, I did not see one close. They played, fighted and nudged each other and grunted with a sound that we usually associate with something else😀.

It was a great experience. We enjoyed being so close to the animals in their own environment and being allowed to observe them in peace. As the water rose with the tide they went with it, and so did we quietly so we did not take their place. Seeing them pat themselves on the stomach with their “small” patches, raise there major bodies from the beach or move forward on there stomach is a sight I will never forget. It is a little strange to call these big animals cute but they sure has a lot of charm.

Summary

I had some lovely days in Puerto Madryn, with some unique experiences.

The weather was a bit mixed, including a few thunderstorms, but I was lucky. I just escaped getting wet both times. On the whale trip we were asked to take on a coat before the mandatory life jackets, but it was way too hot. It was only on the ride back, it was necessary with a little more clothes because of the speed and the wind. At the Penguin trip it was overcast, and I think it was good, otherwise it could have been a hot day. It is not possible to get shade anywhere on the walk, so in sunshine, it is important to remember sunscreen, hat and water.

I had had a few days to recover from Buenos Aires and before some intense weeks in southern Patagonia. It was also my first stay at a hostel, but it went just fine. My host was a sweet couple and I had only just arrived before they checked what I wanted to see and do and made sure to organize my trips. You can go to Valdes by yourself with a local bus, but it is necessary to have a car to get around the peninsula and to go to Punta Tombo.

I also met a lot of nice people from many different countries. Some of them were, as I continuing to Ushuaia, but by bus. It is a trip that takes about 33 hours with two different buses. I was happy for my plane ticket and a total journey time of 5 hours.

Thanks for reading along and see more photos here