A Whale Of A Good Time

Puerito Madryn is home to Aluar, the only aluminum smelter in Argentina and one of the largest processing plants in South America, employing 4000 locals. But it is not the smelter and hydrodam that draws tourists to this small non-descript town. It's all about the whales,  Magellenic penguins, sea lions, Commerson's dolphins and sea elephants that are either breeding, feeding, sleeping or nesting along the nearby Peninsula Valdes coast.

Despite the error in my guidebook that it was whale season (which actually runs from July to September), I was not disappointed in my boat tour as there were plenty of Southern Right Whales to be seen. Mostly mothers and their new-born swimming around and occasional sighting of their fins or tail as they turned over. One adult whale even swam directly at our boat with it's mouth open, filtering the water for plankton and then dived and swam below us. Simply wonderful. There were also plenty of sea lions lying with their bellies in the sun or posing for our cameras and dophins jumping and layfully swimming in the waters.

The Peninsula Valdes Reserve is dry desert-like landscape of small shrubs that reminded me of the Atacama desert but it it is endowed with two large sheltered bays and plenty of marine life to be seen.

Off to eat lunch and catch an overnight bus to Buenos Aires.