Half a million penguins in one spot at Punta Tombo, Argentina

At Punta Tombo, on the coast of the Argentina Patagonia, there's about 500,000 magellanic penguins nesting annually. We were there super early in the morning, just finishing our walk before the 5 buses of teens arrived. 

Penguins are cute, we all know that. At Punta Tombo you get to observe a weird landscape, some with shrubs but at each metre another hole in which there is likely another penguin on his or her eggs (his or her because penguin couples take it in turns to mind the eggs while the other one feeds). This weird landscape goes to about a kilometre inland. 

The holes aren't deep so you can see into them. To manage the visitors there is a strict walking trail and board walk which provides plenty of viewing of all the aspects and the penguins don't seem the least concerned about people being there. 

Penguins are in the holes, wandering about amongst the holes, heading down to the beach for a wash and a feed, and others are returning to their hole/partner. Amongst the penguins, there are also little cavies (guinea pigs are in the cavy family) running everywhere. And the occasional guanaco (like llamas). 

Another bonus, being there so early in the morning (the first by a long shot), we saw 2 guanacos having a fight in the parking lot while we were cleaning up from breakfast, right outside the back door of the camper. Even the parkranger had his camera out. These animals have long necks and so the fight was mostly a kind of wrestle where they went neck to neck and tried to topple the other. Neither was successful and they eventually ran off. It was an exciting event to have such good viewing for!

Biggest dolphins I've ever seen: Orcas (Killer Whales)

It's time to finally leave Peninsula Valdes, there isn't much more wildlife we can spot!

Yesterday we took a drive to the north point of the peninsula. The idea was to see Orcas (in English they are called Killer Whales, but they are dolphins, not whales). The star of the film Free Willy was one if these. 

So yesterday, at one point I left H reading in the vehicle and wandered to the beach. I saw seals (Elephant Seals it turns out), and headed towards them (not too close, I didn't want to scare them or me, they are massive). As I walked along the beach I turned in time to see the biggest dolphins I've ever seen traveling the other direction just in the water. I quickly took a photo. 

I wasn't sure if they were just big dolphins or Orcas, but later, when I read an information board about Orcas, I realized that might very well have been Orcas. And everyone I've shown the photo too seems to think they were Orcas. 

(I can't post the photo today, it's on my camera and since my ipad as nicked I can't easily upload my photos) 

We also saw rheas (like emu), manu's (strange thing, like a rabbit crossed with a deer, almost), armadillo (which means that we've now seen both types of armadillo available here), nesting Magellanic Penguins (at arms length too), elephant seals, sea lions, and the common Guanacos (like Llamas) and common Martineta birds (which are really funky looking ground running things). 

So, now we'll head south on the coast for a bit.... There's still another two types of dolphin to spot. 

But, before we leave... It's back to visit the fisherman: 1kg of scallops (on shell) for about $12, and although I'd never cooked them before I did really well and I'd like to do it again. 

Whale watching in Argentina: an albino calf!

We arrived a few days ago in Peninsula Valdes, on the coast of Argentina. Immediately we set up camp on the beach area in town and wandered out further with our chairs and boxed wine to watch the whales in the bay. It was awesome. 

Two days later we arrived at a new bay to camp. The went for a walk on the hard clay-like surface that edged the sea. It provided a handy standing platform and dropped to deep sea just 3 metres below. 

As I stood watching a massive whale and her albino baby approached. About 10m from the edge, they turned and swam parallel with the mud wall. And we followed. It was a wonderful experience!

These are Southern Right Whales. They are bigger than the humpbacks commonly seen off the east coast if Australia, but not as big as Blue Whales.  

This morning I woke to see a Guanaco (like a llama) running down the beach. And then later I sat down on a bit of that mud wall just in time to look ahead and see a seal pop up in the sea just 4m in front of me!  

I'm loving this overlanding lifestyle. This is the type of thing I never got to do as a backpacker, and as a regular tourist time is too constrained. I'm very glad I chose to have a go at this.