Whales or Wales?
As part of our Argentina trip, we planned to visit El Calafate but Laura seized the opportunity to stop in a town called Puerto Madryn on route because of its Welsh heritage. Of course I agreed to go but what I hadn’t appreciated was that I had just signed up to a 20 hour bus journey there and then another 24 hours to El Calafate… just to see these Welsh towns (ironically Laura can’t even speak Welsh!). This had better be good!
Upon arriving we quickly realised that Puerto Madryn is actually a gateway town. A gateway to Penguins, Sea Lions, Southern Elephant Whales and Seals, and much much more. With only two days here and so much to see, we both decided that the unique wildlife here trumped visiting the welsh towns after all. So we quickly booked tours for both days to see the wildlife around this area. To our delight though we found that our second tour actually included visiting Gaiman – a Welsh Heritage town with traditional Welsh tea houses. Result! I could see tears of happiness in Laura’s eyes! Just amazing.
Once we started exploring, what surprised me most was it’s unforgiving terrain. With only approx 25cm of rain per year it has a very dry and windy climate, but yet the unique wildlife here seems to thrive in these conditions. The first tour took us to the Valdes Peninsula. The highlight has to be the huge rubbery elephant seals. We walked down a sandy cliff to see them close up where we found a 5 tonne alpha male surrounded by over 30 females – they must keep him busy!
After that it was straight on to the boat for Whale watching. Only when one of these 17m-long magnificent creatures swims underneath your boat, you realise how small you are. They are so unbelievably gentle and curious though; coming within touching distance of the boat. Sadly, these traits has helped lead them to the edge of extinction.
On the second tour we visited Punta Tumbo to see a 250,000 strong colony of penguins. It we like nothing I have seen before. They were everywhere and not afraid of humans! Pretty epic experience. We saw so many that we now officially have “penguin complacency”.
We ended the day in a lovely Welsh Tea House in Gaiman, which princess Diana had visited previously. I could see why. The cakes were insane! It was a great way to end the day with a nice cup of tea after travelling for so long!
