Puerto Madryn
The ballad of the whales
14.07.2008
6 °C
The arrival into this sleepy seaside town with the prospect of seeing Right Whales was nothing more than welcome. The surrounding landscape, although beautiful in its own way, wasn’t very inspiring. The Andes in the west sucks all the moisture away from this area leaving it dry, brown and treeless. I was missing the sight of green trees and this didn’t alleviate things.
The town of Puerto Madryn was rather nice. Nice wide roads and a real small (but proud) town feel about it. We checked in to a small hostel with heating, a real luxury after Bolivia, and headed to the beach. We couldn’t go swimming as it still is bloody freezing in this part of the world at this time of year so a stroll would suffice.
To our amazement we could see them from the beach. At this time nothing was more exciting. About five or six whales swimming just off shore. We later found out that they come hear to mate and raise their young. Nothing is quite so fascinating as the first time you see one of these 12 tonne creatures hurl itself out of the ocean for what looks like it’s own entertainment. We were both jumping round applauding at the at the natural spectacle and drawing tired, “we’ve seen it all before”, looks from the locals who really have seen it all before. They barely gave them a second look.
We were keen to see these beasts in the open ocean so we booked a tour to do just that on a small boat. We were a group of about 12 and the excursion would also include a visit to see elephant seals and some other wildlife on the peninsular.
The first 20 minutes of the boat trip was as I had expected. We have been whale watching before and only saw such a brief glimpses of these majestic animals as they came up for air. That’s what we were getting until the captain of the boat found a pod of four Right Whales turned off the outboard engines and waited. To everyone’s surprise these massive mammals came to us! Inquisitive to the end they circled our boat, swimming underneath it, beside it, turning there bodies to look at us only a few feet from the boat. They do seem to actually look at you in the eye when they swim past. I was beginning to wonder who the tourists were. I’m sure they were saying to each other that they had been human watching before but only got to small glimpses of them as they looked over the boat.
They stayed with us for about 20 minutes and it really did feel mutually beneficial, we saw them, they saw us. One of them turned to it’s side and started slapping it’s fin on the surface. I asked what it was doing and the answer was that no one really knows but it just looks like fun. I agreed. They swam off in their own time and we made it back to shore enthralled.
The rest of the tour was actually quite dull. More brown, dry shrubs with the odd llama knocking about some weird long legged rodents that about the size of a dog (more interesting to describe than to see) and South Americas answer to the Ostrich. It looks like an Ostrich but smaller. We also got to see some Elephant seas but it was really the wrong time of year for that so we only saw a few and they were motionless lying on the beach sleeping.. We learned that this is also the place that Killer Whales are found to purposely beach themselves in pursuit of young seals and sea lions. The only place in the world they have been known to do this but, again it was the wrong time of year.
On the way back to the port I felt sorry for the Elephant seals, the tall rat like things and the “mini-me” Ostriches. The whales had put on such a show that the sight of them didn’t have excited. I will be more interested next time I promise
The town of Puerto Madryn was rather nice. Nice wide roads and a real small (but proud) town feel about it. We checked in to a small hostel with heating, a real luxury after Bolivia, and headed to the beach. We couldn’t go swimming as it still is bloody freezing in this part of the world at this time of year so a stroll would suffice.
To our amazement we could see them from the beach. At this time nothing was more exciting. About five or six whales swimming just off shore. We later found out that they come hear to mate and raise their young. Nothing is quite so fascinating as the first time you see one of these 12 tonne creatures hurl itself out of the ocean for what looks like it’s own entertainment. We were both jumping round applauding at the at the natural spectacle and drawing tired, “we’ve seen it all before”, looks from the locals who really have seen it all before. They barely gave them a second look.
We were keen to see these beasts in the open ocean so we booked a tour to do just that on a small boat. We were a group of about 12 and the excursion would also include a visit to see elephant seals and some other wildlife on the peninsular.
The first 20 minutes of the boat trip was as I had expected. We have been whale watching before and only saw such a brief glimpses of these majestic animals as they came up for air. That’s what we were getting until the captain of the boat found a pod of four Right Whales turned off the outboard engines and waited. To everyone’s surprise these massive mammals came to us! Inquisitive to the end they circled our boat, swimming underneath it, beside it, turning there bodies to look at us only a few feet from the boat. They do seem to actually look at you in the eye when they swim past. I was beginning to wonder who the tourists were. I’m sure they were saying to each other that they had been human watching before but only got to small glimpses of them as they looked over the boat.
They stayed with us for about 20 minutes and it really did feel mutually beneficial, we saw them, they saw us. One of them turned to it’s side and started slapping it’s fin on the surface. I asked what it was doing and the answer was that no one really knows but it just looks like fun. I agreed. They swam off in their own time and we made it back to shore enthralled.
The rest of the tour was actually quite dull. More brown, dry shrubs with the odd llama knocking about some weird long legged rodents that about the size of a dog (more interesting to describe than to see) and South Americas answer to the Ostrich. It looks like an Ostrich but smaller. We also got to see some Elephant seas but it was really the wrong time of year for that so we only saw a few and they were motionless lying on the beach sleeping.. We learned that this is also the place that Killer Whales are found to purposely beach themselves in pursuit of young seals and sea lions. The only place in the world they have been known to do this but, again it was the wrong time of year.
On the way back to the port I felt sorry for the Elephant seals, the tall rat like things and the “mini-me” Ostriches. The whales had put on such a show that the sight of them didn’t have excited. I will be more interested next time I promisePosted by DanSue 4:04 PM Archived in Argentina Comments (1)
17 °C
The hotel was made from mud and looked out onto a volcano. It was really, really nice. 
