Puerto Madryn – Argentina

Sealions, Elephant Seals, Armadillos!

A young elephant seal at Punta Ninfas. “It’s salt officer, honest.”

After beating a hasty retreat from the relentlessly dull Esquel, we stepped off a bus in Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic coast. As well as boasting a decent, and seemingly endless, sandy beach it is also the sea life capital of Argentina, and probably the whole of South America.

The largest, and most famous, national park in the area is Peninsula Valdes. It’s fame stems from the fact that, in addition to an impressive array of wildlife both marine and land dwelling, it is the only place in world where Orcas beach themselves to catch sea lions. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for the sea lions, this is a very rare occurrence, and happens for only a few days each year. There was, however, still more than enough wildlife to be seen.

The skeleton of a Mare, found next to the road where our tour bus broke down.

We were taken to the Peninsula in the back of a mini-bus, which, a mere 15 minutes after stopping at the visitors centre at the edge park, burst a tyre. This left us stranded in an arid scrubland, with nothing to shade us from the searing sun (we had to disembark while the tyre was changed), and no sign of habitation for some 15km. My initial glimpse of the local wildlife didn’t reassure me much as regards to our predicament (see photo left). After a thirsty 90 minute wait by the roadside the frayed tyre was still firmly attached to the bus, and all our driver had achieved was to cover himself in a thick layer of first oil, then dust, so that it appeared he had been subjected to an ordeal similar to being tarred and feathered. Fortunately for us increasingly parched passengers another bus arrived to continue our journey around the peninsula.

As we continued our journey, just happy to be moving, we began to see more and more of the wildlife that populates the park. First we spied a herd of Guanacos, which look like Llamas, but definitely aren’t according to residents of Patagonia. Then we saw Rhea’s, which look like Emus but according to our guide are different, and soon after Mares, large rodents that look similar to Capybaras.

A Guanaco

Mares

A Hairy Armadillo

Our first lengthy (scheduled) stop was at the largest sea lion colony on the peninsula. Before we even reached the clifftop viewpoints our path was crossed by a Hairy Armadillo waddling through the car park trying to sniff out crumbs dropped by clumsy tourists.

Sea lions.

Once we did reach the viewpoints we were treated to unobstructed views of the hundreds of sea lions lazing on the beach below. The animals were arranged in small clumps along the beach, each a hareem belonging to a different dominant male who intermittently roared to mark out his space on the sand. Amongst the adults were countless pups playing and splashing is the shallow seas.

Penguins.

From the sea lion colony we travelled some 20 minutes further around the peninsula to a thriving penguin colony. Here the birds make burrows in the soft, sloping cliffs, and from our vantage at the top we were no more that a meter or two from them. As we looked on a Southern Giant Petrel (similar to an albatross) glided past us, no more than 2 meters away.

Our penultimate stop was at a beach where elephant seals make their home. Unlike the previous stops there were few of the animals to be seen, and as the cliffs were higher in this region of the peninsula the seals were little more than light grey patches against the darker grey beach. More impressive however was our sighting of a grey fox relaxing on the path back to the bus.

With our circuit of the peninsula nearly complete we were given some time to explore the small town of Puerto Pirámides. Despite boasting little more than a row of cafes and a small sandy beach, the town had a nice atmosphere and provided good views of the high, dramatic, cliffs of the peninsula. After a quick drink we re-boarded our bus and, thankfully, made it back to Puerto Madryn on a single set of tyres.

Cerro Avanzado, with extremely rare cloud.

Our next excursion took us some along the coast to Cerro Avanzado, which was to be the start point for a long walk back to town enjoying views of the coastline. We had however chosen a decidedly hot day, and our pleasant coastal walk turned into a scene from Laurence of Arabia. By the time the sun had reached it’s zenith I had commandeered Kim’s spare shirt and was wearing a rudimentary keffiyeh to shade myself from the glare. Fortunately, because we knew there would be no shops along our route, we had packed over 3 litres of water and while this saw us through it was still two very thirsty travellers that pitched up at a bar on the beach at Puerto Madryn. Despite the heat, it had still been a very nice walk. The landscape was impressive, without being beautiful; at least not in the usual way. The ground was parched and dusty, with low, thorny bushes the only vegetation able to survive the dry conditions. Through this arid shurbland guinea pigs shuffled and squeaked, and overhead large birds of prey hovered waiting for one to stray too far from the safety of the covering vegetation.

Perhaps the highlight of our week in Puerto Madryn was our morning swimming with sea lions. After squeezing ourselves into some rather snug, and exceedingly buoyant, wetsuits, and having been provided with a snorkel, mask, and a pair of flippers, we were driven some twenty minutes down the coast before being ushered, somewhat reluctantly, into the chilly shallows of the Atlantic. We were then given some brief training so that we could move effectively in the super-buoyant suits, and so that we wouldn’t frighten the sea lions with frantic splashing.Once we had gotten the hang of swimming we climbed aboard a small boat and set off across the waves toward a small sea lion colony.

Back in the water again, it took a some time before a sea lion deigned to venture from the rocks and swim past us, but when it did we got a great up-close view of its effortless, sinuous swimming style. We waited about 10 minutes more before another, more distant sighting, but after bobbing in the cold sea for 5 minutes more a sea loin decided to take an interest in us. It swam up to our group and began to gracefully swim around each of us, as if taking a closer look. After inspecting each of us, I was chosen for a closer look. Swimming to no more than a foot from my face, the creature slowly turned and began softly biting my right hand. We had been told in advance that this may happen, it doesn’t hurt at all and is the sea lion’s way of saying hello, they are remarkably social animals and the biting of flippers (or hands) is an important sign of friendship. After a few more nibbles, off she swam to say hello to Kim, then other members of our group.

Still on a high from our close encounter with the sea life, we booked a trip to Punta Ninfas to take a closer look at elephant seals. This time we were collected in a battered jeep by a grizzled former sea captain, Juan-Pablo, and bounced along another dusty road through the immense flat pampas. Descending a steep cliff onto the stony beach below we hopped across rock pools teaming with small crabs and anemones for about ten minutes before rounding a curve in the sheer cliff and stepping onto the beach with around 20 elephant seals.

A sea lion basks in the afternoon sun.

Juan-Pablo was keen to keep us at least 10 meters from the creatures, and even quietly told off 3 other visitors who had gotten too close to a pup. We sat and watched the seals lounge in the sun, occasionally expelling a think white ooze from their noses (Juan-Pablo informed us this was the way the animals relieved themselves of excess salt). In one of the large shallow pools among the rocks two young males sparred in imitation of the more dangerous combat that the adult males engage in, every so often they omitted strange loud roars that sounded somewhere between thunder and breaking wind. At one point we had to quietly pick our way around an large adult male sea lion, resting with the seals because he had been defeated by other males an so did not have a hareem.

Back at our hostel we decided that after about a week of some of the best wildlife watching we had ever experienced it was time to move on, this time much further south to the city of El Calafate.