Creature Heaven : Punta Tombo : Tues 4th Feb

Not only Tuesday 4th February, but my birthday too. Thanks everyone who sang me Happy Birthday in weird and unusual languages! I am 34 now. I do not feel 34. Today someone asked me if we were travelling round South America because we had just finished school. That was a nice veiled question.

After the tour of Peninsula Valdés we decided to also book the tour down to Punta Tombo to see 'a million penguins' (official description). Im not sure I've ever seen a million anythings. Better rouse ourselves at 7am yet again to have breakfast and make our connection.

Down ruta nacional 3 we went, Hugo our guide for today, looking like a lead singer from a rather angry 90s metal band (i.e. - huge, with dreadlocks). But it was all quite cheerful. We handed over our $380 for today's trip and got on our way.

Down at the town of Rawson, named after a famous Irishman who helped Argentina fight the British sometime around 1833 (according to Hugo) we spend another $380 getting onto a boat that will take us out to see dolphins. "One important piece of advice" says Hugo "The dolphins are fast, so take video rather than photos". Couldn't have been more right.

Seafood factory where local men peel shrimp. I'm not sure what it pays but I'm not doing it for love nor money.

Shipwrecks.

For our money we got some black cormorants thrown in. They didn't do very much, if Im honest.

Bonus sea lions hanging around outside the seafood plant.

A real bonus was a tern, very unusual down here.

A fishing boat getting ready to head out.

Not penguins, sadly, but more cormorants in disguise on the breakwater.

Leaving Rawson harbour

Our boat.

It didn't take too long for our skilled captain to track down a few black and white dolphins, who were happy to play around the boat so long as someone made some waves for them. Sure enough, I have some great videos of this, and hardly any photos at all.

Except for this one. This is as much as you ever saw, so I was contented with this shot.

More typically the vista was a bit like this, dolphin a good 30-40m away.

Why is Nancy McDonald on our boat!!?!?!?

It was all fun and games and worth the cash. Before we headed back in our captain fired up a load of waves behind us, and we had dolphins leaping in and out of the waves. A suitable crescendo to our boat trip.

Back on land we get back into the bus and head south. We munch on our salami-cheese-mustard baps and drink our water, and watch as the Patagonia landscape rarely changes.

The windmills added to the eerie alien feel of the country.

Not long travelling down a gravel track, through an estancia measuring 60000 hectares, all sheep, although we slept for quite a bit of it. The sheep farming didn't exactly look intensive. Anyway, roll up at the entrance to Punta Tombo Park and hand over another $78. This is undoubtedly the expensive tour, but so far worth it. You can drive down here if you want, but hiring a car is quite expensive anyway.

We had a few guanaco hanging out across the road to the car park. Got them to pose long enough for this photo.

Got Sarah to pose long enough to take this photo, not that it takes much persuading her to pose, hahah.

So into the park we go. You walk about ten feet, and are surrounded by penguins. This is the sort of place that other peoples' words cannot adequately do justice.

Penguins, you are reminded everywhere, have right of way. If they want to cross the path you better move! And no petting them either! There were some stern looking individuals around to make sure you behave yourself. No getting closer than 1m to penguins either!

This is one of those little suicidal birds that are everywhere down here. Not so suicidal now!

Do not step outside the white rock lines or you may tread on penguin eggs buried just below the surface.

Mummy and babies, these guys would be about 12 weeks old.

It is weird to see penguins on a sunny day on a beach, but evidently they were all too hot, and they spend their time lying flat on the ground trying to cool down. These guys all hid under the bridge and made a racket.

Penguins as far as the eye can see.

This penguins keeps a close eye on the guanaco. No threat, but you just can't be too careful. There are sea gulls and hawks all over the place, they're the real danger.

A little penguin moulting his baby fur to become a adult. They have a gland down at the bottom of their back that secretes an oil that makes them waterproof.

This is a very typical scene.

At this beach the penguins head into the sea to catch fish for the family. Gone for 2-3 days at a time, they will travel 600km, diving 12m at a time, and bring back around 1kg of food, mostly squid, silverside, baby hake and other assorted crap fish which they then regurgitate for the babies at the handover. One parent always stays to keep watch, one goes fishing, then they switch over. A penguin nest could be anything up to 3km inland. They mate for life and they return to the same nest every single year.

Every single black mark is another penguin. All in all there were around 200,000 penguins to watch.

Time comes to leave. Its about 2 and a half hours drive back to Puerto Madryn, and we pass the time drinking mate, and watching the hills roll by, as and when there were any. It is beautiful down here, the monotony of the landscape takes nothing away from its difference.

Arriving back, we encounter Patrick and figure there is only one way to celebrate me getting older.... STEAK. AND BEER.

A selection of steaks. 

The vision of happily cooking meat makes me feel good inside. We stayed up shooting the breeze with Patrick and fellow yank Emily til 4am. Why, God? Why?????