Room Service rings our door bell this morning at 6AM with breakfast! Carolyn had checked 6:30AM and we had the alarm set for 6:15. We are sound asleep, but that’s alright, we wake up in a hurry! It is supposed to get to 93 degrees today a big change from the 30 to 50 degree weather we have had for the last 10 or so days. Dressed in light weight clothes, loaded with all our camera gear and binoculars we are in the lounge by 7:05 and on the bus by 7:25 heading to Peninsula Valdes.
This is a huge wildlife reserve area beginning about an hour's drive north around Gulfo Nuevo from the port. The gulf is flat calm this morning, a big change from what we have seen for most of the last two weeks. The plan for today is to see a Magellan Penguin rookery, a mixed colony of sea lions and hopefully some of the local wild life unique to the Argentine Patagonia.
Puerto Madyyn is a small city that looks prosperous in spite of its remote location.
It was originally settled by the Welsh and sheep stations are king in this desert area. They get 250mm or one inch of rain a year The main industry at one time was whaling and catching Sea Lions (lioning) for their oil, but now it is ecco-tourism. Many of the quaint customs remain such as a lavish afternoon tea, but we are here to see the animals.
Peninsula Valdes home of the reserve, is entered by way of the narrow isthmus between Gulfo Nuevo and the Gulfo San Jose. From there it is anther hour plus to the northeast point where Estancia Lorenzo is located. This is a third generation sheep station long the northern coast of this very remote area. The original Lorenzo also was a lioner, a killer of Sea Lions for their oil, and the ruins of the old, oil rendering facility are still visible near the beach.
The seals were wiped out in the early 1930's, but in the 1970's the Magellan Penguins established a rookery and it is now home to some 300,000+ penguins.
Along the way, the driver turns out to be a good spotter. He is driving a greyhound type bus, at the speed limit, about 40km on a rather dusty road and we stop to look a guanacos,
a small native member of the lama family, rheas,
a funny, ostrich looking bird that blends into the landscape and maras,
a small animal that looks like a cat on rabbit legs with fur the color of a red fox. It is still early and there is no traffic plus the land is slightly rolling with very low to no grasses and bushes so that helps with the animal spotting.
About 10AM we turn off the well maintained gravel road onto a dirt, pig track of a road for the last several miles to this lonely sheep station.
It is a small, low, cement house with some out buildings and a large barn like structure which is a big dining hall where we will eat later.
They have several whole lambs roasting over an open fire in a huge fireplace.
It smells wonderful! After a restroom break we board an old 1947, Pontiac, open-bed truck (the bed has been fitted with benches and a wooden frame covered in heavy plastic)
or, if we can’t climb into the truck bed, a small bus. We go a three or four miles to the beach . There is a mile long path marked with a low wire to guide us through the penguin colony. Penguins are everywhere, including this years crop of babies, last years babies, who are molting, and adults. They have made their nests everywhere in the fields they share with sheep
and in the path, so we have to watch our step.
It is fun and interesting to watch them...they are so curious and cute.
The path leads down to the beach where we can watch them coming and going from the water.
In Antarctica we saw the penguin predators in actions, the larger birds and the seals, but there were no land predators there. Here life is much harder for these penguins because not only are the usual air and sea predators hanging around, but also ones on land, foxes and armadillos. The penguins have a very hard road to adulthood as evidenced by the dead babies and young ones we see at every turn. Only about half the chicks survive infancy. Even so, the colony is growing every year.
We spend an hour walking around, then head back to the house for a very nice, traditional lamb dinner, empanadas, cheese and cold cuts, homemade bread, wine, fresh salad and a delicious flan with leche comada or leche dulce on the side for dessert.
Next we load up the bus and head to the most northerly point of the peninsula, Punta Norte, to see the mixed colony of sea lions and elephant seals. We walk out to the edge of a cliff over looking the beach. It is a beautiful scene with beautiful pools of clear blue water covered in green algae and hundreds of baby sea lions playing in the little pools and on the shore almost as far as we can see.
There are some huge bulls with fabulous manes lying around on the beach sleeping or watching over the females.
It is fun to watch the animals in this idyllic setting, but once again nature can do its thing. This is a favorite feeding ground for the Orcas. They have been known to come right out of the water and snatch a baby on the beach for dinner. The ranger said there were several in the area earlier, but they didn’t feed. It hadn’t been too hot while we were with the penguins, but now it is nearly 2PM and even though the wind is cool the sun is blistering hot and uncomfortable to stand in so we head back to the bus.
Our last stop is at a nice, little museum back at the entrance to the peninsula. We get back to the ship at 4:15PM. It has been a long day, but well worth the time.
This is probably the best tour we have had. The bus had A/C and we had a great guide. She is a teacher, writer and also has her own whale watching operation.
Dick goes swimming and Carolyn goes to the bar. We get cleaned up...it was very dusty...and go to dinner shortly after the dining room opens. Almost no one is there. We have a Caesar salad, the spaghetti bolognese and a wonderful slice of rich chocolate cake. We are both exhausted so we head to bed.
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