Today – another tour with our cruise critic pals. This time we are with Melanie and Jeffrey, Marianne and Norm (who have been organizing all the cruise critic events, lists, etc., thank you!!!!), Theresa and Colin and another couple (who sadly, we can’t remember their names!).
We were out and off the ship post haste, found our tour driver, loaded up and were the first ones out of the port headed to Punta Tombo – an ecological preserve for nesting Magellanic Penguins. It is a 2 1/2 hour ride to Punt Tombo, with 1/2 hour over “bumpy” roads. We’re not too thrilled about that – but to see 800,000 (yes, almost 1 million!) pengiuns? We’ll handle it!
As it turned out, it was an easy ride. Sebastian, our tour guide was totally informative and interesting. He gave us tons of information about Patagonia, the penguins, their mating behaviors (they are fairly monogamous, always coming back tot he same nest and the same mate), the baby chicks, feeding patterns – you name it – he told us. We covered the paved road in no time at all – and hit the “bumpy” road which was all gravel and more noisy than bumpy. (Although there was one time when it was more “sliding” than bumpy when we passed another vehicle and got caught in the middle of the road where there was lots of loose gravel…we all breathed a big sigh of relief over that one.) There were other groups at the park when we arrived, but not so many since we were still the first group from the ship to arrive. So, we had a great time walking through 2 KM of paths and trails looking at all the penguins – without a bizillion people crowding around.
This place was just mind boggling. Everywhere you looked, there were these little penguins. Waddling here, waddling there, in their little burrows, with their chicks, chicks by themselves, chicks with other chicks, chicks crying to be fed by their mommas (and watching one momma feed them). It was absolutely amazing to see these little guys everywhere – as far as the eye could see. When we get to post the pictures (when we get bandwidth!!!) you’ll see landscape photos with these little black specks everywhere – those are penguins! You won’t believe it.
The ground rules are: We’re not allowed to touch the penguins; when they want to cross the path, we have to let them go in front of us; and if we get too close and they start shaking their heads, we have to move away because that means that they are scared, and they may bite – but more important they may be too scared to continue doing whatever they are doing (like going for food or to their nest), and we don’t want to confuse them. Otherwise, just stay on the path and take pix!
The emerald blue skies are dappled with clouds, there’s a cold, stiff breeze blowing, and we are walking among thousands of penguins. How cool is this? There were more photo opps than you could possibly ever take advantage. We took as many pix as we could, and then just stopped and watched. They were swimming at the beach, sunning themselves by their nests, picking the fuzz off each of the chicks to let their adult feathers show through, or waddling around looking for their mates. It was magical and so worth the long drive!
We headed back along the path, taking in all the penguinicity around us – and congregated at the road side bar near the entrance of the park. The owners of the ranch who gave the property to the government for the preserve were allowed to keep the road side bar/restaurant as compensation – so they’ve made out. We had lunch there – which consisted of 3 lamb empanadas and 2 beers for under $10. it was a great “semi-local” way to end our Punta Tomba experience.
Back in the van, we headed toward Puerta Madryn, with a stop in the valley around Trelew (the main town in this area) to visit Gaiman – an original Welsh village. The Welsh settled here (for what reason, we don’t know – or don’t remember Sebastian telling us!) and they have a Welsh church, school and tons of little Welsh tea houses nestled in this little picturesque valley by the Chubut river. We stretched our legs a bit in Gaiman and used the facilities at one of the cute little tea houses, then headed back along the highway to Puerto Madryn.
What a fun day! And it’s only the first of the penguin visiting we’ll be doing on this trip. Can’t wait for more penguinicity!
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