After another long ride in a bus we arrived in Puerto Madryn. It was a lot colder then in Bariloche here at the sea. Unfortunately we were late 4 weeks as the wales which are here in the bays to feed and rise their babies. They are so comfortable in their surrounding that they come up to 10 meters close to the shore. We heard that up to 1400 wales are in the bays. We didn't have the pleasure to see them anymore.
We camped on a campground a little outside of town close to the beach. We went to buy some meat and wine for a BBQ that night. It was raining when we started our fire and the table neighbors offered their already existing fire pit to get us going faster... A nice family we chatted for a while with. I sent a request for our last trip of our bus ticket, only to find out that we didn't have any trips left. As I was very certain we still had one trip left I sent an email to them, requesting a fast investigation of our situation. As it was afternoon, I didn't hear anything back. I had to wait for the next day. As we wanted to leave to BA the next day, I hoped that everything still would work out for us.
As the close by peninsula is a heaven for wildlife, we took a tour next day to the wild reserve. We had a very friendly and knowledgeable guide with us on the small tour. So we started our search for wildlife.
With Chrisy's good eyes and a lot of luck we found some very soon!
Chrisy was able to capture one and hold on tide to it. As we heard there is more to see, we proceeded searching.
Next to the road we saw this small family. The kids were as curious as we were. Mum just thought of dinner and knew that they were in a safe distance and we are not allows to hunt them.
It is the time of the year were the beaches are full of new born life. Many seal babies started with their first explorations in the colony. Whilst the alpha male was busy showing off and fighting other intruding males off, the females were sleeping and trying to get any bit of warmth into their bodies.
I was very excited about other creatures we found nestlings and with their latest arrivals to the family. They are very relaxed and don't mind to be close to humans and being captured on film!
I could have sat there the entire day and watched them. They are so cute. There were probably 100 penguins. Further south is a colony with approximately 1million at that time. Our guide was great with explaining us a lot about the animals and the history of the peninsula. As it had a dark history we can be lucky we still saw the seals. They have been hunted for a long time and slaughtered by the thousands on a daily basis. It's fat was once used to keep the lamps in BA burning in the night time. It must have stunk like hell in those days.
We had an afternoon tea in a small village and tried to hear back from our bus agency. As we had problems to find Internet it was always a quest for connection. We ended up returning to the city and still haven't heard back. So I finally called them, after finding out the correct number. I tried the day before already several times to call them, but had a wrong number. I talked to a lady and she promised me that we would get contacted by email until the end of the day. This meant for us that we had to stay for another night, but also that we had to stay around an Internet connection to hear back from them. It was a nerve racking time. After two more calls we finally heard back from them saying that they made a mistake and we were able to book our last trip. As it was already to late for that day we booked for the following day. However, as we only could choose a time after 24hrs, it was far beyond the time we wished for. So I made a booking and wanted to call them in the morning in hope they could change the time for us. A little relieved about being able to use our already spent moony for the last leg of our trip, we went back and put our tent back up. Next mornings call was successful and we got booked on a executive bus (fancy...) for the afternoon departure. Finally we were able to get closer to our joga retreat we've been looking forward to for such a long time. Unfortunately with a shorter time available then hoped.
More pictures from our time in Puerto Madryn
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