Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes

This part of our trip was super cool, definitely one of the highlights. Spent the first night in Puerto Madryn, despite our plans to make it into Puerto Piramides on the peninsula. By the time we got there (18 hours on the bus, our longest yet), the once-a-day bus to the peninsula had already left, and because of a taxi driver shooting the night before, all drivers were on strike (we were told this type of violence in Puerto Madryn is very rare). Luckily, a couple from Boston we had met on the bus gave us the name of a hostel they were going to stay in. It ended up being the nicest hostel we had ever stayed in, and for 40 pesos each (less than 12 dollars), was a steal, especially since no one else ended up staying in our dorm.

Caught the bus to Puerto Piramides the next morning, and managed to get on an afternoon whale watching tour. Guess what we saw on the tour? NO WHALES. Yeah, since the season had ended 2 weeks earlier, we were planning not to take it, but had heard from a few people that they had seen whales just the day before. Huge bummer, but we saw some sea lions at least. The tour guides felt bad, so they gave us a discount on the land tour, which we did the next day. Upon later research, I found out that during high season, some 600 whales come to the bay to have their babies. Pretty cool.

Puerto Piramides from the hill

The land tour was great. We went in a shuttle up to Punta Norte, where we saw sea lions and elephant seals, then down to Punta Delgada for more, plus magellanic penguins. We also saw guanacos (ancestors to llamas, and wild) grazing on the land, and sheep, which are farmed for their wool and meat (ew). The shuttle took us back to Puerto Madryn. We met up with our new friends, Carrie and Hugh (aforementioned couple from Boston who were also on our tours) and had a few beers. We decided to rent a car together to save some money, and drive to Punta Tombo the next day. Hugh and Carrie have been living in Buenos Aires for a few years, and speak fluent Spanish (huge help when trying to make reservations over the phone).