It was Apr Fool where Good Friday and Easter Sunday was around the corner, I took the early morning flight from Buenos Aires to Trelew. The morning air was refreshing but the queue was long at the check in counter. First experience of not being able to speak the language, bad, even though quite a lot of local knows English. I got a windowless seat right next to the propeller at the end of an old small DC plane. For the next few hours, my ears were deaftened. But it was a full flight, so I can not complain. When the flight got in to Trelew, some of us got off while our luggages do not. The plane took off to Ushuaia, but our luggages were left in Buenos Aires and we are physically in Trelew. That is how we learnt about company runs by government is not a good idea.
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| Puerto Madryn, Apr 2010. |
From Trelew, I took a 2 hours drive to Puerto Madryn, not a long distance but the first thing to learn about Patagonia - Wind is Strong here! So, drive slow! Without my luggage, I had no warm clothing and no cloth to change for the day or night. Aerolineas promised to deliver the luggage by noon the next day. The receptionist from Los Tulipanes offered to borrow me her sweater for the next day tour as the temperature was dropping to freezing point low.
The Patagonia Wind is likely to put you to sleep in 10 minutes if you are walking outside. The land is vast, no high grown, all steppa, thus the wind swept ferrociously! I learnt that the first thing next morning, I was freezing. With a T-shirt and a borrowed sweater, I made the journey to Peninsula Valdes. The whole peninsula is a nature reserve, even before we reach the park, we saw many Guanacos running around.
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| Guanacos in Peninsula Valdes, Apr 2010. |
The park is 1,400 square miles. In South America, you will still see farms in national parks or nature reserves. The reason is the farms and farmers were here first. The land was designated as national park or nature reserve later. In these countries, the government do not drive the farmers out of the land, but work with the farmers to preserve the land.
When we reach the parking and started hiking around the park, I started to see animals that I never see before. Guanacos, Pichi, Zorro Gris Chico (a type of fox) are running around every where.
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| Pichi in Peninsula Valdes, Apr 2010. |
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| ZorroGrisChico in Peninsula Valdes, Apr 2010. |
Most of the visitors coming here for a chance to see the Baleen whales, Orcas, Elephant and Fur seals, and sea lions. I didn't see the whales as it was not the season. As we reach the shoreline, we saw some flippers right at the distance and out our guide shouted "I can't believe it, we are lucky!". There was a family of Orcas swimming north, and we run! The Orcas swam all the way north, then turn back and swam all the way south. They are not showcasing themselves. According to the guide, it is the way they search for food - fish! I watched the flippers for almost 30 minutes, did not manage to capture a photo when they action their stunt.
When I walked down the shoreline, I realized that the animals here do not fear human. For the fact that the animals here have more right than human, we were not allowed to go near or touch the animals, no contact. You shall see the seals and the sea lions seem to be lazying around, just like this family, having a love scene!
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| Seals + Sea Lions in Peninsula Valdes, Apr 2010. |
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| Peninsula Valdes Shoreline, Apr 2010. |
I have not mentioned about the Magellanic Penguins. For all about it, I waited till Punta Tombo the next day.
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