Onwards and Upwards via some sea animals
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2005
1
23
126
Trip End
May 26, 2008
Puerto Madryn,
Argentina
Monday, March 13, 2006
* Guanacos (A type of Llama)
* Penguins
* Armadillos
* Ostrich
* Whales
* Orcas (Killer Whales)
* Sea Lions
* Elephant Seals
* Billions of birds
* Loads of other random animals
Sounds pretty good, but to be honest, Puerto Madryn was not an overly exciting place - the wildlife are as lame as the locals, but nonetheless, it was good to see a few animals close up
Armadillo
. I caught the end of the summer season, the winds were picking up force and coldness from the south and the weather wasn't all that great.I hired a bike with a crazy German companion and rode to a place called Punto Lobo, (Lobo is - Sea Lion in Spanish). It was a grueling 17km ride along a hot gravel road. We arrived at the Sea Lion colony, paid our 10 peso entry fee and sat and watched the Sea Lions, swimming and playing but most of all, sleeping, while we ate lunch and admired them from above. Occasionally one would take a few steps, then appeared to collapse with exhaustion. Big sea cormorants were meandering through the colony of 300 Sea Lions, who took no notice of them. After a few hours admiring the big animals we headed home, battling against the famous strong Patagonian winds.
The next day was spent in the Eco center, built as a UNESCO project to educate people about the wildlife here. The best thing about the place was the huge complete whale skeleton and a dark room, where you sit on the floor on cushions and listen to random whale noises.
A few days later I hired a car with 3 Germans (the Germans are everywhere here, but luckily, they are all great people with a quirky sense of humor)
El Penguino
. We drove to a National Park in a place called Peninsula Valdez. Where there are many sea lion and elephant seal colonies, along with a bunch of penguinos!First stop was the famous Punta Norte, where most Orca documentaries are filmed!Unfortunately, we waited and waited but the Orcas failed to show. Disappointing, but we sat and admired the Sea Lions for a few hours, who survived the day without being eaten by a giant black and white dolphin, as is usually the case.
The second stop was a Penguin rookery, where we got super close to a few nesting penguins, resisting the urge to pat them, we got some great photos.
As we were driving to our next stop an Ostrich ran across the road in front of the car. We tailed it for a few seconds, doing about 50k/h but it took off, disappearing into the distance a breakneck speeds!
A little further up the road we saw Guanacos (Llamas), and ran out to take a few photos. They didnīt wait for us and took off before we got a chance of a decent photo. We had wandered close to the ocean and decided to take a look
Sea Lions
. To our surprise, the waters edge was littered with penguins... Dead Penguins. We had found a penguin graveyard. The beach was covered with dead or dying penguins. Apparently their food sources are disappearing and each year more and more penguins come here for eternal peace. We did find one conscious, healthy looking little guy and wondered what he was doing. We got right up close and took some amazing photos. Attached! He apparently wasn't as healthy as he looked and kept falling over, off balance as he tried to keep an eye on the curious tourists. Poor little guy. We left him in peace and continued along the road to our next stop.
Elephant Seals. About 50 of them, maybe 100 meters away. It was cold and the wind has seriously picked up. We didn't get much of a view and once again, the Killer Whales, which are normally here looking for a feed proved elusive.
The final stop was Punta Pyramids, a tiny town of 300 people, one road and a great big beach, where the tide line is over 6 meters. Luckily for us, it was super low tide. I revved our little red VW and headed for the sand. With the idea of īDon't be gentle, its a rentalī in mind, i managed a number of serious donuts and hand brake turns, ripping up the sand before returning to Puerto Madryn and handing back the keys.
We drove 407 kms for the day, having to pay 25 centavos per km for the extra 7kms!
The final night in Puerto Madryn involved a parilla, (BBQ) with Lamb and prime meat, and the amazing īChoripanī - (sausage sandwich) and 12 bottles of wine for the 15 of us. Needless to say it was a late night and a slow start to the next day, where I left Puerto Madryn with an Israeli guy with the intention to hitch north, towards mar del plata and eventually buenos Aires.
