Elephante Marino on the Valdes Peninsular

Day 29, 04.11.2018, Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, Argentina,

Puerto Madryn is mainly an aluminium smelting town. We didn’t go downtown but it didn’t look too attractive from a distance. The town though is not the main reason for visiting here. We had a bus trip today to see some wildlife on the huge Valdes Peninsular. This is a big country and we did over 400km through flat dusty scrubby country. It looks more like West Texas than Antarctica but is still considered to be Patagonia. Once it was famous for Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabaugh a.k.a Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid owning an estancia in the area.

Guanaco roam free here and there are also some sheep that don’t roam quite as freely as they can’t jump the fences. It is on the coast where the best beasties are to be found. We looked at sea-lion colonies, elephant seal beaches, Magellanic penguin rookeries and even some Right whales leaping about. Not much of it was in the close-up Attenborough TV style that we have all become used to.  It’s not unreasonable though as being pestered by tourists would tend to put a damper on all the breeding going on and some tourists would likely end up being flattened into the beach sand under a few tons of blubber.

We lunched in a restaurant at the remote portlet of Puerto Pyramides. Empanadas, giant steaks, Patagonian wine. The usual stuff.

More photos when I get cheaper internet.

 

Day 30, 05.11.2018, South Atlantic off Patagonia, Argentina,

Sea day.

 

Day 31, 06.11.2018, South Atlantic off Tierra del Fuego, Argentina,

The Roaring 40’s were not so bad but the Furious 50’s are a bit uncomfortable. We should arrive in Ushuaia late this evening.