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We are now in the land known as Patagonia. We bussed it from Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn. Got here on Tuesday and hooked up with some Danish kids (Martin and Malena) at the bus station who were also trying to figure out the best way to do Reserva Faunistica Peninsula Valdés. We decided to share a rental car so we spent a few hours researching and acquiring the future dustmobile (all the roads on the peninsula are dirt/gravel), a Volkswagen Gol.

We set out driving out to the peninsula where we were hoping to see penguins and seals. The road out to the peninsula looked like something that should have been in the video for U2’s Where the Streets Have No Name. Nothing but dry desert with sagelike shrubbery and one line of electric poles disappearing into the horizon. No signs, no mile markers, no houses. There was the occasional sheep though. I never expected to see penguins anywhere near a place that looks like this. We finally pulled into the town of Puerto Piramides where we set up our tent at the campsite (really nice campsite by the way - cleaner than most in the US).

When we got on the road the next morning we went to the coastal overlook called Punta Norte. There we saw several hundred seals, including lots of baby seals, separated into groups (perhaps social groups?). It is funny how their mannerisms are so much like dogs. When they walk, they look like dogs trying to walk with baggy, not-quite-long-enough pyjamas on. They howl (although it sounds more like gargling). The young ones fall all over each other when they play. They even scratch behind their ears with their hind flippers - even though they don’t have ears.

We then went to Caleta Valdés, and saw elephant seals, which are very lazy. You don’t even know they’re alive except for the occasional movement. They look like enormous slugs laying on the beach. Near Caleta Valdés was a spot with a sign that just said “Pingüinos”, so we stopped. There were Magellanic Penguins (they burrow in the ground) right up against the fence posing for the camera. We could also see some of them swimming in the water, very fun.

But the big buzz going on around was about the orcas. At Punta Norte there was even a film crew camped out on the beach. Apparently this time of year, Killer Whales show up on the peninsula with their calves and teach them how to beach themselves to eat the seal pups. There is a group of about 11 orcas that return every year to feast. We didn’t even know about there being orcas here at all. Well we didn’t see any. Not that day.

The next day (Thursday) we got up earlier and drove out to Punta Norte, and guess what? Orcas. 4 of them. They were swimming around in the water near the overlook so we got a few pictures. They never beached, but we feel like we’re living in a Discovery Channel episode.

This afternoon we head south to Rio Gallegos (the southernmost point on our itinerary) and then on to El Calafate.