Puerto Madryn and Penninsula Valdez

Well I am convinced we just visited the sea life capital of Argentina and It was AWESOME! Puerto madryn from Ushuaia was quite a long way and i will spare you the details and dramas of that trip. Arriving in Puerto Madryn at midday we were picked up by our Swiss friends Magali and Sebastien in our rented car. With the freedom of 3 days with our own transportation we quickly headed to Penninsula Valdez. Through dusty, dry and desolate lands we arrived at Punta Piramides. note, the pictures for this place are devoted to what we saw in the water since the land was not really worthy of many pictures

We booked our boat ride into the bay, to view the Southern right whales (ballenas, aqui). Not but a few short minutes later we had laid eyes on our first of many of these massive swimming mammals. Not known for the beauty (pretty ugly actually) they are lathargic and ginormous beasts, amazingly they move with grace and playfulness.

Our 1 1/2 hour trip awarded many closeup oppurtunities to view and watch the whales, actually it was mating season and in a few awkward moments we had witnessed some "whale lovin." My favorite time I recall struggling to find the correct spot to watch (or take pictures) due to the fact we were surrounded by atleast 8 whales!

We stayed on the penninsula that night which allowed us a strategic jump-off to the rest of the area. The following morning we headed deeper onto the penninsula stopping first at the Elephant seal area (as a side note the entire east coast is covered by families of elephant seals so truly we were only able to see a few of the thousands that house here for the season).

This part was really fun to just wait and watch. At first approach you think that these giant blobs of fat are lazy and unimpressive. However after some time and patience you have a chance to recognize the living dynamics. Each "pack" or harem has one dominant male elephant (called this because of their nose) that demands attention from the 10-15 females.

The females had recently given birth to pups whom quickly adapted to their lazy beach life.

The dominant male at this time of year had the job of defending his role as the master, so we witnessed some great fights.

Naturally the young males wanted some action too, but they first must fight the dominant male. Seems like this would be fairly easy due to the fact they are the fattest and slowest, but then again he has wisdom is on his side (and he is constantly in a state of satifaction, which we also witnessed). Needless to say it was fun to "watch nature breath."

After spending a long time in awe, we continued onto another walkway. The sand bar just off shore provided a sanctuary where we were lucky enough (quite rare apparently) to see a family of orcas.

Em was the first to spot them so we quickly poised our cameras. For the next 10 minutes we were alone watching them play in the bay. After that word had gotten out and we were in the mass of camera bearing tourists. We truly had a great time watching them and what we later realized was that the mother was teaching the calves how to ramp onto the beach to feed. They were practicing for the later months when the feed on the pup seals that head out into water as they learn to swim. It was super cool!

Then even further down the road we experienced our first penguin colony. These funny and goofy little birds were a joy to watch and i will tell more about them in our next blog.

The long and dusty road back had a spur along the coast that gave us even more glimpses of the right whales as the sun faded into the horizon.

What a cool place we were able to experience, i am still in a state of wonderment as i write this.