Oct 6-7, 2004

I took a flight from Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn. Its a small town on Atalantic cost of Argentina. This is the place where one Ballena Franca Austral (southern right whale). Every year 600 individuals reach the Nuevo and San Jose gulfs where they give birth to calfs.

I flight from BA on 6th arrived in Trelew. Its about an hour bus ride (17 pesos) from Trelew to Puerto Madryn. I checked in to the Backpackers hostel, and took a bus to EcoCentro in Puerto Madryn, the museum is about 30 min walk from the last stop. Its an interesting place to visit, here you can listen to whale sounds, see some interesting videos of Orca whales hunting. I think this place is worth visiting.

Next day I went on tour of Peninsula Valdes, paid 120 pesos. I was picked up from the hostel at 7.30AM. The guide Claudia had the most beautiful eyes. Anyway we took a long ride (100KM) to a place called Pierto Piramides, where we were transferred to a big boat, operated by company called Tito Bottazzi (www.titobottazzi.com). If you go on trip I would suggest you hurry up and be quick on getting on to the boat and sit either on left or right side of the boat, avoid being stuck in the middle. Within few minutes of our ride we came across whale and a calf. These whales swim rather slowly, (9/11Kmh) they must have been so easy to hunt during whaling days. The female southern whale is about 18 mts long and weighs 50 ton, male is about 12 mts long and weighs 40 ton. They have calf every 3 years. These whales have unique white markings on their belly, they do not have dorsal fin unlike Orca whale. The boat ride lasted about 90 minutes. We saw close to 20 whales, it was an amazing experience. We actually saw a whale doing belly flop do not know if that is the correct term for it, but it was amazing to see it...

Then we continued with our bus trip and visited Punta Contor saw many sea lions. Had our lunch around 2.00PM and on the way back to Puerto Madryn we visited spot where we observed Penguins. I returned to Puerto Madryn and booked a flight to El Calafate as the bus ride takes 18 long hours.