Fake Wales and Real Whales

We've just got back from the Peninsula Valdes where we spent 4 days in the sun wildlife spotting. We stayed in the only village on the peninsula, Puerto Piramides, in an eco-hostel. The hot water was solar heated and the grey water was recycled for toilets. Good stuff, though we did have to endure a couple of brief power cuts (one in the middle of cooking) and a few hours without water.

The peninsula is home to (among many other arguably less interesting animals..): Sea lions, elephant seals, killer whales, Magallenic penguins and Southern Right whales. We hadn't expected to be able to see the whales as they tend to leave the area in mid December. However, when we arrived we heard that there were still a group of whales in the bay, so we jumped on the first boat available and went to have a look. We were lucky enough to see a mother with her newborn, helping it to swim, along with at least 5 other whales. It was incredible to see such huge mammals moving so gracefully through the water, and swimming right up to and under the boat. The photos don't do it justice. If you ever get the chance to go whale watching, you have to do it!

We hired a car and drove round the peninsula to see the other animals including a huge colony of sea lions and seals in the north (where we unfortunately missed killer-whale-feeding-time, though did spot their dorsal fins patrolling the shore).

On the final day we drove down south of the peninsula to Punta Tombo, where there is the largest continental colony of Magellanic penguins. The penguins are unbelievably curious and confident so you can get right up close to them. They're very cute and entertaining to watch (Marion couldn't stop smiling all day). It's nesting season so we got to see some very young pingus too.

We'd planned to spend the final afternoon drinking Welsh tea in the small welsh settlement Gaiman, but ran out of time. Fortunately, this whole area of Patagonia has a scattering of Welsh villages and on boxing day well be heading to Trevelin so the tea will have to wait until then!

We're now back in Esquel where we'll be spending Christmas before continuing the journey south. Happy Christmas everyone!