Peninsula Valdez

We arrived in Trelew (sounds a bit Welsh to me, turns out it is..) to our latest hotel, which my God hadn't had a revamp for a good 30 years! It's always a but weird arriving to a new town, unfamiliar hotels and surroundings. But this weirded me out even more. Think 'The Shining'. Luckily we were using this place as a pit stop for a trek further afield the next day so we settled down for the evening, did the usual supermarket sweep and organised ourselves for the journey ahead. The hotel was clean and presentable otherwise, we even had a separate lounge area, complete with black leather (not nice) armchairs. It's amazing what a good/or bad interiors can do to a place.
We set of in taxi to Peninsula Valdez, well when we started we thought we were staying a little closer by near the town of Puerto Madryn, but turns out the taxi driver didn't know where we were headed having said previously that he did and we had to add another 100km to the clock before we arrived.
We had picked a rural location for our next stop, it was a little more than we were used to paying but we hoped it would be worth it. The hotel was located in an 'Estancia' or ranch on the Peninsula and had had rave reviews on trip advisor. We entered the peninsula which is essentially all national park, and from then on the road became gravely, every hint of civilisation melted away as we entered a totally barren land (this land or 'steppe' is pretty much everywhere in Patagonia but this seemed more barren somehow), not a tree for miles. And miles and miles. We saw plenty of sheep, running away from our noisy presence and then the odd animal, was that a rabbit or a deer? Eventually a small sign indicated the arrival at our ranch, Rincon Chico, and we turned down the drive. 10 minutes later (literally) we saw a little house on the horizon, and as we pulled up infront of it a girl greeted us, looked with surprise at our luggage (we probably should have left some in Trelew) and ushered us to our room. The house was beautifully and tastefully decorated but our first impression was reluctantly 'is this it?' There wasn't much to the place and we'd paid a lot of Argentinian pesos to be as inthemiddleofnowhere as I have ever been in my life. Still, we knew that the main reason for being here was for the wildlife so we hoped for great things over the next few days.


We noticed a young family in the sitting room and the girls came curiously over to meet Leo. They were Dutch but despite their young age, had an impressive command of English (must persist with teaching Leo Spanish somehow). Luna and Mila told us about their visits to see penguins and elephant seals and their enthusiasm was infectious. The lady who initially greeted us, Guadalupe or Lupe, took the guests on twice daily tours to the shores for a bit of seal spotting, the girls had already been that morning but were going again later that afternoon. At lunch we met the rest of the family, Miryam and Jelle, who we were fascinated to find out were travelling for a year with the girls, doing a few long stops in Buenos Aires and Australia en route. Great to meet such like minded people!

We all went together to visit the elephant seals in the ranch's 4X4, after a good drive to the coast we disembarked and slid down the sand dunes to meet the resting seals.
The beach was sprinkled with sleeping elephant seals, and we were able to gently creep up to see them up close.

We had co-incided our arrival to the end of the breeding season, so many seal pups lay among a few cautious looking females with the odd looking (big trunk like noses-hence the name) alpha male guarding over the remainder of his harem. It was incredible to be so close to this animals in their own habitat, for they come here year on year to breed, and whats more, it was only the 8 of us there (including Leo of course) on the beach with them. This is what we were paying for, and it became clear why it was worth it. We were there for a time, and as the wind was picking up, we said our goodbyes and headed up the sand dune. As we were heading toward the car, a little thing scurried by, which came to investigate our shoes. We were told we were very lucky to meet this smaller cousin of the armadillo as they were usually quite antisocial! An amazing end to the excursion.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we joined our new Dutch friends for dinner, exchanged travel experiences and had a lovely evening. Their trip is in another league to ours however, Luna and Mila are being tutored as they travel so they keep up to speed at school and obviously a year is a lot longer than four months. But what an educational experience!
The following day we'd arranged a trip to Punta Pyramides, the nearest port, to go whale watching. In the morning, we thought we'd pop and visit the seals again, this time with a German couple and on a different beach. The seals were more active than last time we had seen them, and there were all sorts of shenanigans going on including a vicious disagreement between a couple of alpha males.
Again, we could but wonder at the uniqueness of our surroundings and the David Attenborough-ness of it all (I'm running out of adjectives). Then it was time to catch the taxi to meet the whales (hopefully).
Our visit coincided with the right whale breeding season, and mothers and their newborn can be seen close to shore before they head off to the feeding areas far out in the Atlantic waters. We shared the taxi with a German couple and drove in endless wilderness to get there. When we finally arrived we had enough time to grab a quick cheese and ham toastie before making the next sail out for whale viewing. Taking Leo was no problem.
The boat was pretty crowded so we hoped we'd get a view, and just as we were about to set off our Dutch friends appeared out of nowhere! They were due to fly back to Buenos Aires that evening and we had already said our goodbyes at the ranch but had enough time to make the whales in the end.

The whales were out in full force out to sea. As the mother whale stuck her head up to check out the boat the tourist were all a flurry in snapping away, including us. I tried to get Leo to have a look, but he wasn't that fussed about the commotion going on in the water. Then a mother appeared with her new calf which was completely white, swimming in tandem, it was incredible. Luna and Mila were so excited.

We got a good few looks at the whales, a fin and tale here and there, no acrobatics but you can't have everything. Disembarking we had a bite to eat, Leo was given a little dolphin toy as a present from the girls and we said our goodbyes once more. Writing this I realise we only were with Jelle and Miryam, Luna and Mila for 24 hours, but it seemed like so much more. I guess when you meet great, like minded people you don't need very much time to make an impact. If you're reading guys, it was a pleasure to meet you and we look forward to meeting again in London/Amsterdam!
As the house on the ranch is small and we were the only guests, we had no worries about putting Leo to bed and with the baby monitor, going to watch some tv with a glass of wine. We watched a National Geographic documentary on elephant seals, with footage taken on the beach that we had been at the day before. I think it was then it home what a special place we were in.
The following day we had assigned ourselves a bit of a rest day, so we took the morning off to chill and the afternoon to visit the elephant seals once more. This afternoon we were to be on our own, just the three of us plus Lupe, and we just hung out with the seals for a while. Leo, awake for the first time, seem to be intrigued in his new baby friends too. What a great way to spend an afternoon.



On the way back we grabbed some final photos, for other fauna are to be found on the planes, guanaco, maras (strange rabbit deer we saw the first day, descended from guinea pigs!) as well as rheas and, well, sheep! Nothing worthy of National Geographic, but good for the memories and to show Leo when he's old enough.

The following morning it was time to leave, and we were sad to leave the isolation and tranquility. But we were off on one last trip, up to the North of the Peninsula to see some penguins at their breeding grounds (love is indeed in the air). A quick stop along the way in the hope of seeing Orca (no such luck) and then we took the long, slow drive up to Punta Norte and the private ranch which was home to the migratory penguins.
We were pleased to see a considerate and protected set up at the ranch for the penguins. With so many tourists (including us of course) it is easy to imagine the disturbance of grounds would deter the animals from coming back and abandoning their territory. Luckily conservational rules are enforced to ensure that tourism flow is restricted, tourist are made to keep to predetermined paths and not allowed into high density areas. This meant we were only able to observe a few hundred penguins in an area inhabited by 300,000, but what's a few fewer penguins between friends? Again we were privileged to see paired penguins in their nests, commuting from the sea with a catch for their new hatchlings, eggs waiting to hatch. A bit like the march of the penguins, but much more friendly surroundings.


On the way back to the taxi to head home, a sneaky guanaco came by to peruse our vehicle. I managed a quick photo before diving into the car for cover, I thought it was about to eat me alive! (guanacos don't really eat people alive, they have to be dead. No they don't actually eat dead ones either, only grass).

A long long long bumpy drive home awaited, and we mostly slept, and Leo did very well, he's SUCH a good traveller, we said bye to the peninsula whose beautiful animals we'd made aquaintances with, and headed back to our 1970's hotel in Trelew.