Argentina 2: Peninsula Valdes

This was my day on the Peninsula Valdes! I was very keen and couldn't wait to get on the road. I read somewhere that it is much nicer to take the dust road along the coast (42), rather than the paved main road a bit further inland - and that was right. Not far out of town I came to a nice hill with a lighthouse and a great view over a long beach. This is the Area Municipal Protegida El Doradillo (Municipal Wildlife Protected Area).

And - believe it or not - more whales! You could see the small tour busses stopping on the beach (yes ON the beach!), and you could also see a couple of modified trucks (Unimogs) of some adventure travellers. People were standing on the beach watching whales. After a nice short walk, and a look at the various interpretive panels, I drove down to the beach and had a look around there. Man, the whales were even closer than in Puerto Madryn! Some of them came in almost touching distance. I guess they were not further away than 5-10 meters. The beach must drop off drastically if these large animals can be submerged that close to shore. Most of them, however, were easily within the 50-meter range. I spare you a whole bunch of additional whale photos, but I want to post just a few, since they are different from the onces I took in Puerto Madryn. In particular, I was lucky to see a mother with her calf!

mother and calf

upside-down, showing its white belly

mother and calf again

the calf on its own

the lighthouse of the first photo

After a while I kept driving and soon entered the Peninsula Valdes National Park and World Heritage Area. At a booth I had to pay 45 peso for me, and another 5 peso for the car, and off I was.

On the Istmo Carlos Ameghino is a visitor centre with a small observation tower and museum.

a Southern Right whale (Eubalaena australis) skeleton

I proceeded to Puerto Piramides, which is the main whale watching town in the area. it is here, where commercial whale watch boats are leaving. However, having seen the whales up close from shore, I doubted that the boat trip could be any better, and thus skipped it. The town was tiny, with some basic facilities. I filled up the car, because this was the only petrol station on the peninsula. After a while I turned onto the 3 and headed towards Punta Norte. All roads in the park are dust/gravel roads, but you can still easily drive about 100km/h in most parts.

On the way I saw some Guanacos (Lama guanicoe). They were pretty shy, and as soon as you opened the door of the car they tended to run away. Some were together with some sheep (most likely domesticated), but others were roaming freely.

I finally reached the Estancia San Lorenzo, a private farm in in the national park. In addition to farming, the Estancia also owns a beach where hundreds of Magellan Penguins (Speniscus magellanos) nest. They offer a tour of about two hours, including the transport to and from the beach on an old truck. It was quite pricey, and I was contemplating whether or not I should book it. Worse even, they did not have credit card facilities, and the fare was exactly the amount I had in cash, i.e. I had no spare money if I booked the trip. But hey, you are here only once, so let's do it. My rationale was that I intended to go to Punta Tombo the next day, about 120 kilometers south of Puerto Madryn, where a famous Magellan penguin colony is. But, being able to see them here would save me lots of driving time, and quite a bit of extra cost in terms of petrol and mileage charge. So I decided to do the tour here, and I wasn't disappointed. It was a wonderful tour, and in a small group we were lead around the beach. There were hundreds of penguins, left, right and even on the foot path. Some even nested on the foot path.

the "tour bus"

It wasn't particularly warm, but our guide told us that the open mouth is a sign of them being to warm. You can also see the barbed hooks in the mouth, which help swallowing fish, and prevent it from escaping.

Just a few meters down the beach was an Elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) family. The male was quite impressive, with its 3-4 tons of body weight!

you can clearly see the scars and wounds from fights with other males

I noticed quite a few dead penguins in the area, and asked the guide for the cause of their death. He said that it might be natural death, but also predation, especially by foxes. Since it is within a national park, they do not interfere with anything, and thus leave the carcasses where they are. All they do is monitoring.

This lady accidentally stepped on the edge of a burrow/nest, and broke in. The penguin was running out of the nest (covered with sand/dust), but there was a second one in the nest. It was totally covered with dust/sand, but did not seem to be harmed.

those two were quite "busy" ;-)

This was the only Armadillo I have seen, when I was driving back
to the main road to Punta Norte.
Sadly, it was dead. It looks like it was hit by a car.

Not far from San Lorenzo is Punta Norte. This is the famous beach where orcas beach themselves and prey on seals. It was orca season, but unfortunately, there were no orcas that day. However, there is a nice little trail along the dunes, from where you could see plenty of sea lions and elephant seals.

I saw a few of these signs. The full text is
"This place is not a hospital. But the relevance of silence is the same one. Thanks!"

A research observation station. I could think of worse places to do my PhD...

From Punta Norte I took the 47 south along the east coast. At the Caleta Valdes (long narrow peninsula) there were a few more seal colonies and a much smaller penguin colony.

Cormorants

The Estancia Elvira, at Punta Cantor, was a bit of the tourist hub of the peninsula. It had accommodation and a restaurant, and the car park was buzzing with rental cars, mini buses and coaches. It was by far the busiest place of the entire national park (except Puerto Piramides), but it was still not really that crowded. They had nice trails along the coast, with views on various seal colonies, birds, and incredible scenery. There were a number of nice interpretive panels along these trails. Out at sea, a sole Southern Right whale swam by...

fresh wounds from fights with other elephant seals

The salt lake Salina Chica on the way back (on the 2)

And I even saw some Nandus! They were just crossing the road, but were very fast and shy. They made a runner as soon as you stopped the car. The photos are taken through the (dusty) car window, hence the poor quality.

I once again chose the 42 on the way back, and had another look at the whales on the beach. However, I'll spare you yet another bunch of whale photos...;-)

This was a very long day, with lots of driving on dust roads, but it was worth every moment of it! The wildlife was just amazing, and it was wonderful to see many of the animals up close, but also see that they are protected, and disturbed as little as possible.