Whale watching

Trip Start Apr 05, 2008
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Trip End Mar 20, 2009


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Where I stayed
La Tosca
(Puerto Madryn hotels)

Flag of Argentina  , Patagonia,
Sunday, November 23, 2008

I'm homesick and I can't stop thinking about scooting home for a bit of family and friend time over summer bbqs and warm summer evenings.  So I guess there must be some reason why I'm taunted constantly by the travelers we're meeting as they all seem to be going to New Zealand after finishing in South America.  We've been traveling now for almost 8 months and are both starting to feel travel weary so I think this has a lot to do with my desire to go home for a bit and just do some normal stuff.  I'm sure once we hit the beaches again we'll hopefully feel rejuvenated.  For now though I'll suffer through listening to other excited travelers and their plans in the land of the long white cloud.On arriving into Puerto Madryn we found our hostel and were soon booked on a whale tour leaving in an hour.  After 13 hours on a bus the idea of getting into a mini-van for the day was less than appealing but as the weather was good we've learnt it's best to grab the bull by the horns and do it.  Especially also as the main reason we had come to Puerto Madryn was not only as a stepping stone to get to Torres del Paine but also so we could hopefully see the Southern Right Whale Cuties
Cuties
 .  Fortunately for us and everyone else, most of the people on our tour had also just got off the overnight bus so we were all in the un-showered and a little bit tired camp.  The tour guide was useless and didn't add any value to the tour but we got to see what we had hoped, some Southern Right Whales.  After most of the day spent driving along exceptionally boring roads surrounded by miles and miles of sandy plains covered in scrub visiting some penguins and elephant seals we finally boarded the boat and set out to see the whales.  We've been spoilt by our Galapagos experience so seeing seals from a distance of 200m just isn't that exciting and snorkeling with penguins is hard to top.  Unfortunately as it was mid afternoon the wind had steadily increased so it was pretty choppy.  A mother and two of her calves spent a lot of time investigating our boat and came incredibly close, a magnificent sight, they are huge!  Our photos simply won't do the experience justice, let's just say that National Geographic won't be calling us to buy any of our photos.  That and the whales just weren't playing ball, no breaching, no tail flapping but we were warned that this wasn't the circus ;-).  With an hour before we were to head back to Puerto Madryn we sat in the sun enjoying some drinks whilst being covered in gusts of sand with Ben and Emma, an English couple heading out to live in New Zealand for two years (of course).  We finished off catching up with them for dinner later on enjoying fresh local seafood and somehow managing to befriend the waiter and ending up with free drinks.  
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