22 de Enero - Puerto Madryn & Peninsula Valdez
¡Hola Chicos! (means hey guys)The water is beautiful here. It is the most beautiful jewel blue. I still think that the water in Fiji and the Caribbean is more brilliant than anything else I´ve seen, but we are in Patagonia, so I´m impressed. I didn´t expect the beaches here to be this inviting, especially because it is known to be windy and cold down here. We are further south than Austrailia in this part of Argentina. We got lucky yesterday with great weather and took a tour of the Valdez Peninsula to see an entire peninsula of pampas that butts up to the wild Atlantic...it´s desert-like reserve land that is home to all kinds of wild life and not-so-wild sheep. We saw armadillos and guanacos, which are relatives of the llama. We saw a couple thousand lion seals on the beaches with their harems and babies. The sea lions are very interesting. Each male has a harem of between 6 and 10 women. Only the larger most developed males get a harem, the smaller and younger males are relegated to an island away from the bunch because they are not strong enough to protect a harem. The beach we went to was totally full of male with harem after male with harem, all living on top of eachother. It is a constant struggle between the males to make sure one of their harem is not stolen by another one of the dominant males. This competetion plus the close living quarters makes for constant tension and battles. We saw many fights as the males stand up and scream at the top of their lungs before lunging at the would be lady stealers that encroach on their women, and then they go over and rub necks with the female that was being eyed by the other males. It is really hilarious, and kind of tense. We think our dating scene is tough, this is impossible. Anyway, we think the sea lions are closely related to pimps, because they act very much the same way. After that, we snorkeled in the cold water, but didn´t see much other than jellyfish. We saw elephant seals, and as we sat on the beach observing them, we prayed that an orca would sweep in and gobble one of them up (which happens from time to time here). I never thought I would be such a blood-thirsty animal lover. We didn´t get lucky enough to see prey and predator in action, nor did we see any whales, which come here for mating season in June, July and August. I thought for sure that yesterday afternoon´s weather (wind whipping, grey cumulus clouds overhead) at the mouth of the river on that Peninsula was perfect for orca sightings...but maybe next time. Anyway, tomorrow we are going on a tour of Punta Tombo, where there are thousands of Magellanic penguins that come here to breed this time of year, and then we stop at a Welsh pioneer town called Gaiman to have a traditional Welsh tea time experience. Who would´ve thought that you could have authentic Welsh tea and cakes in Argentina?
posted by The Blaus @ 7:19 PM
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