Penguins
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2005
1
52
103
Trip End
Jun 24, 2006
Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Miles travelled: 45746
Wow, lots of driving. We've had 3 straight long days of driving to reach the Camarones penguin colony on the Atlantic coast. There we saw a colony of about 50,000 penguins -- they're very cute, waddling about the coastline, then flopping into the water for a swim. They apparently dig little holes or caves in the ground for their homes. Many baby penguins were born in December, so it's cool to see the young ones beginning to molt, to lose their brown feathers and develop the black-and-white coloration.
From Camarones, we went further north to Puerto Madryn, near the provincial border where we leave Patagonia. We went out to the Valdes peninsula, which is a maritime reserve with large colonies of elephant seals, sea lions, and penguins. Honestly, it wasn't all that exciting, as the elephant seals were pretty much inactive on the beach. (They are amazing creatures though - they can dive up to 1500 meters (about a mile) deep and hold their breath for up to 2 hours before resurfacing!) The sea lions had also just had pups, so we got the chance to see the little pups scrambling around the beach and climbing on the adults.
