Peninsula Valdes

This arid bleak Peninsula, shaped by two enormous bays is a complete wildlife frenzy, there are animals everywhere. Today I am on the one day Whale-watching tour having arrived in Puerto Madryn last night. Puerto Madryn is a cool Patagonian coastal town renouned for being founded by Welsh settlers in 1886, it has a really superb vibe and it´s hopping with Xmas activity and excitement.

Today I´ve seen Sea Lions, elephants seals, wild llamas, some local rabid rodent the size of a dog, grey foxes, hares, Penguins, armadillos (my favourites) and most unusual of all..Whales. Thats because the whale watching season is over, finished in early Dec, but there´s a couple of randy males still looking to get some late action on Xmas Eve, reminds me of The Plough Pub, Cobham at midnight and luckily I was there to see them. They were amazing to see close up, we took a speed boat right into the bay and the three Whales encircled the boat checking us out for over 30 minutes, the captain was ecstatic having warned us it was very unlikely we´d  see anything.  We continued onto Peuto Delgada to view a large elephant seal colony visibile from the high beach cliffs, the seals just lolled around on the beach unconcerned and seemingly hungover. It wasn´t until a major scrap broke out when a young upstart tried to cruise the Daddy Elephants Seal´s lady, pandemonium broke out and all his pals gave the young fella a bit of shooing..all right infront of the tourists..priceless.

Overall an unforgettable trip and one I would thoroughly recommend. Now I´m off to hit some ales tonight and celebrate Xmas, Best wishes from Patagonia.