Our second marine wildlife watching adventure begins at Rawson, an hour to the south of Puerto Madryn. The outskirts of this town are plagued by yet another forest of plastic bags clinging to shrubs and bushes. Do the locals not notice this eyesore? Do they not care about the environmental impact? Am I a hypocrite for pointing out another country’s imperfections when both Britain and America have less than perfect environmental records?
Okay, enough moralizing. Christi and I came here for the simple pleasure of dolphin watching, although there’s some debate whether the boats will go out given that the strong, gusting winds have returned today. Eventually they do and Dramamine keeps the worst of the swell at bay so I can attempt to photograph the torpedo-like movements of the Commerson’s (or Torina) dolphins as they jump, splash, and cavort in the bow wave or zoom under the boat. Commerson’s dolphins are very different to the more common bottle-nose and different again to the pink river dolphins; Commerson’s dolphins are black and white and resemble mini orcas.
Our next stop is the massive penguin colony at Punta Tombo. Each spring 500,000+ magellanic penguins come ashore to nest. And currently the monogamous penguins are incubating their eggs. Also due to the wintry conditions, few are out and about: most are hunkered down beneath bushes where they make their nests. In good weather there are often thousands of penguins on the beach. Part of the reserve is fenced off to give the penguins some peace, while some areas are designated for us to walk through – no doubt much to the disgust of the inconvenienced penguins. This does allow us to get reasonably close to the little blighters, and much like their Argentinean counterparts, many are enjoying a leisurely afternoon siesta. Penguins are not the only ones benefitting from the protected status of the reserve as we encounter guanacos and even a wild guinea pig – much smaller than its domestic counterpart. More an amuse-bouche than a main course.
The long drive back to Puerto Madryn is punctuated by a brief visit to Gaiman. We have a two-minute city tour and then go for High Tea at Ty Gwyn, which is, apparently, Welsh for ‘White House.’ It’s not quite the same as High Tea at The Ritz in London, but there are plenty of cream cakes and lashings of hot tea with milk (which isn’t bad).
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching tale
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