Sea lions, whales and penguins...OH MY!?

Hola Amigos!

As you know, Ajay and I have been having an absolutely fantastic trip. The week I am about to describe however, for me, may have been the highlight of all highlights, primarily because of the actors involved. Last week, we spent 9 days in the area of Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdez. This region is located on the Atlantic Coast about a 20 hour drive south of Buenos Aires, so it is considered to be part of northern Patagonia. It is as vast as any other area of Patanogia. It is comprised of extremely long distances populated by little more than sheep and a few estancias (ranches). The landscape is arid steppe and desert. But then, there is the ocean...brimming, or shall I say swimming, with life.

Why do so many animals live here in the ocean, you may ask? We learned in the very well-done Ecocenter in Puerto Madryn that this region is where multiple ocean currents meet (sub-tropical meets sub-antartic), a large continental shelf exists before the deep abyss of the Atlantic begins, and there is an abundance of the -planktons (the smallest organisms in the ocean that many of the creatures higher on the food chain depend upon). Thus, we had the opportunity to meet many new friends who I´ll describe in a minute.

First however, a little bit about the journey to this area. We traveled from Bariloche (remember the Lake District?) to Puerto Madryn on a 12-hour overnight bus ride. It was one of Argetina´s finest with full bed seats, food service and movies. It is very common to take these luxury liner buses across the long distances of this country. It was all rather comfy until....the 10 o´clock movie. Unfortunately, each seat could not control its own audio. Therefore, despite the fact that the majority of the bus was trying to sleep and despite the 4 or 5 little kids on the bus (4 and 5 year olds), the steward put on a VERY violent and loud movie. We are talking torture scenes here. I of course complained to the steward how this was not only extremely disturbing to some of us and that it would have long-term negative effects on the children on the bus (who of course cried the whole night, no wonder?!). To no avail, the movie stayed on, and stayed on loudly. In fact, I think he turned it up! It was at least in Spanish, so with a blind fold and ear plugs, we were able to lightly drift off to sleep. But come on...! Ajay and I have seen enough Argentine TV (late in the evenings) to know there is NO shortage of Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, and Julia Roberts films. Ha!

Anyway, onto cheerier subjects...Once we arrived in Puerto Madryn (PM), we rented a car for the week. This is the fourth car we have rented on this trip. The distances are so vast and often times the buses infrequent, we determined early on this is the best way to see as much as you can for the best price. First we drove south to a tiny town called Gaiman, settled by the Welsh. In the Welsh tradition, tea houses are abundant. We checked in a hotel for the night, had afternoon tea here with an obscene amount of pastries and cakes, and headed out the next morning for our first exciting stop: Punta Tombo!

Punta Tombo is home to 350,000, I repeat, 350,000 Magellenic PENGUINS! As you may recall, in my vows at our wedding, I promised to be Ajay´s personal penguin for life. You see, penguins often mate for life; they leave each other sometimes for long periods of time but always do their best to find one another upon their return; and finally, they share in the care of their young. They are very industrious little creatures and can swim as fast as dolphins! There has been ongoing research of this penguin colony at Punta Tombo (the largest in South America) for over 20 years with scientists from all parts of the globe.

This place was incredible!!! There was a very clearly marked tourist walkway that is intended to be respectful of the penguins. However, the penguins could really care less about the tourists. So, they build their nests along the trail, cross the trail at their discretion and for the most part, ignore us. Both the males and females were here at this time because their babies were still young. Some penguins were still sitting on eggs. We saw one baby that had just been born. It was so powerful being this close to nature. Ajay and I smiled and laughed for the three straight hours we watched these guys. WOW!

After Punta Tombo, we traveled about 2.5 hours north to Peninsula Valdez. We stayed for three nights in a town of about 200 people called Puerto Piramides. We loved it there. This town is the only one town located on the Peninsula which has been declared and protected as a reserve. Until the 70´s, the town used to be the port where they would ship all of the seals that they killed for oil...I know, no blood for oil...sad, but true. Now however, things have changed! The town has become a whale watching mecca (the whale has become a national monument in Argentina) and a beach town, strangely enough.

The first day we spent in Puerto Piramides, we went whale watching. The Southern Right Whale (only known to this area of the world) visits the area from July to December for breeding, mating and raising of their calves. While we were there, most of the whales were making their way back to the Antartic for feeding. Fortunately, we saw two mamas and their babies. The one mama had a white calf (only 1 in 100 babies born are white). She didn´t want us to get too close so we moved on (the guides are very respectful of the whales). The other mama whale didn´t seem to care that we were there, so we got very close. She started doing the diving known to the Southern Right Whale where her tail fin was raised out of the water. The baby was also playing with the mama swimming on top of her and diving in the water. It was absolutely breathtaking. At one point, Ajay took a picture of me with my jaw dropped. These mammals weigh TONS and are truly majestic. In awe of nature, again.

A couple of the days we were in Puerto Piramides, we took hikes in the area, basically right out our front door. We hiked to a local sea lion colony about 3 miles from town. It was a small colony, and they were a bit in the distance but there was no mistaking the males intimidating one another in pursuit of their harem. Quite a drama to see unfold! We enjoyed all of their antics and the views while walking back to town.

Finally, we visited Estancia Rincon Chico, Ajay´s very special birthday extravanga. Estancias are sheep ranches that populate much of Patagonia. Many have opened their doors to tourists, and we had been wanting to visit one since we arrived here. So, of course, we chose this Estancia that owned 4,000 acres on the coast of Peninsula Valdez with its VERY OWN elephant seal colony. Scientists have been studying this colony for 30 years. It is protected despite it being on private land. The hotel at this estancia was lovely as were all of their pets: dogs, baby rheas (orphaned ostrich-like birds), ducks, horses, and sheep.

On Ajay´s birthday, we had a private tour with the Estancia´s guide. We walked for 5 hours along the beach AMONG the elephant seals. The beach master males get to be 3 tons and quite obnoxious. The females, young males, and pups (mostly who was on the beach while we were there) were precious and amazing. They were on the beach molting, raising their pups, and getting ready to return to sea where they spend 90% of their life. We were also surrounded by stone cliffs, bright blue-green sea, and a complete lack of development. I mean, seriously, what more could we ask for?!!!

Oh yes, then there was the fact that we were the only guests at the hotel on this day. We ate a gourmet meal in the dining room alone, and they made Ajay a CAKE for his birthday. I was so pleased, as you can imagine, that although we were in the middle of nowhere, Ajay probably had one of the best birthdays of his life.

We did lots of other activities during these 9 days, but I have already rambled on enough. We cannot wait to share our pictures with you all. And there is of course more to say about the challenges of all our animal friends, with the overfishing of their food supply.

Two more weeks...more to come.
Love,
Gina and Ajay