Victoria and Justin: A whale of a time

Our next stop was Puerto Madryn, for some whale watching, after another 24hr overnight bus trip. We arrived in the afternoon with enough time to book our tour for the next day. The tours head out to the Pennisula Valdes, which is a protected animal reserve where Southern Right Whales come every year to give birth to their young, before heading south to Antarctica in December to feed on krill. We weren't sure what to expect as we'd heard you might (or might NOT) see any whale on the tour but we were blown away.

Our boat tour took us into the bay and immediately we came across a mother and calf (it was feeding time). Unfortunately they swam away from the boat, so we left them in search of more action. Before long we found a inquisitive and playful calf, about 4 months old and already 10 metres long. It was spashing its flippers (apparently signalling to its mother), showing us its tail and then it came within a metre of the boat. It swam underneath and around the boat for about half an hour, and as it swam off it jumped out of the water (called breaching) about 3 times into the distance. A perfect tour they say when it comes to whale watching. We were absolutely stunned with how many whales were in the bay, we could see lots of them also in the distance. A very special place.

After a short lunch stop, we continued north up the coast and spied on some baby elephant seals, not very interesting as they lay on the beach and did not move. We were hoping to see an Orca (Killer Whale) jump out of the water and feast on one of the seals but no such luck (Justin was very disappointed). We also visited a colony of Magellanic penguins, most of them sitting on their eggs waiting for them to hatch, we saw two tiny penguins no bigger than about 8cm´s tall, very cute.

What a day, we hit the jackpot. Another unforgettable experience.