Whales, Sea Lions and Penguins

Trip Start Nov 01, 2006

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Argentina Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Saturday, October 6, 2007

So we got another bus across the country to Puerto Madryn, a town famous for whales, sea lions and penguins. We arrived at about 7.30am and after dumping our bags in our dorm and grabbing a quick breakfast we hired bikes and cycled 15km each way to see a colony of sea lions. It was really knackering but great to see all the sea lions lazing around on the beach and we even got a photo of two having a cuddle!
The next day we hired a car with Kim and a Scottish guy we met Ewan and set out to drive around Pennisular Valdes which is a 500km round trip to see all the wildlife. We started off by driving to the north of the peninsular to see some sea lions which was our favourite part as none of the tours get that far, so we had the place to ourselves and the ranger set up some superduper binoculars so that we could see everything close up. Then it was off to see the penguins, which were very cute and you could get really close. Then it was onto the elephants seals who really are massive and they just lie there occasionally making noises but not really moving at all. Last stop was meant to be a boat tour out to see whales but it was too windy so we stopped off at some other beaches on the way home and got to see some whales really close to shore, a couple breaching and a dead one on the beach.
We then spent the next couple of days lazing around trying to decide how to get further south, to fly to get two buses which would take nearly 24 hours. We ended up going for the bus as we're quite used to them now. So it was time to go to El Calafate home of the famous Petit Moreno Glacier.

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