Satellite
  • Day 109

    We Found Penguins!

    March 16, 2016 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today we have a tour booked and when the guide comes to pick us up we are only wearing shorts and t shirts, he suggests we go and grab some warmer clothes. To be fair the wether is not great, last night a fog descended on the town and this morning is still hanging. Most of our clothes are in the laundry so i grab the thin jumper with a hole in it and my waterroof jacket and off we go . There are 4 italians a couple of argentinians a couple of germans and an english girl . It is an hours drive to the entrance and when we arrive the fog is still thick and it is freezing. We wander around for a short time and inside the centre is a skeleton of an orca whale. The rest of the journey is via a dirt track and to say that its hellraising would be an understatement. We make several stos along the way,. The first stop lets us of and as we walk along the small path and we cant beleive it the is a small group of penguins. To see these creatures in their natural enviroment is breathtaking and i cant describe how this makes me feel to see them free. Its a crazy idea that i have that penguins like the cold and trot around on ice all day as this is really not the case they have holes in the ground like rabbit burrows that they return to every year to lay their eggs. The males play a big part as they take they're turn on minding over the eggs, doing the hard work of digging the holes because sometimes theybreturn to find theyre burrows have collapsed and they have to start from scratch. We move further along the coast to find groups of elephant seals lying on the beach they are mainly pups and a few adolescent ones as they dont become full adults until they are 10 yrs old. When they are fully grown they can spend upto 9 months in the sea feeding and preparing to mate. The trip also features sightings of armadillos, rheas, birds of prey and playful sealions. After severall stops our final one wiĺl be at punto norte where we have our best opportunity to see the orca whales. As we stop my heart races at the anticipation of seeing these amazing mammals in action, that will be brought to the beach in the anticipation of feeding on the seal pups who are in the water learning to swim with their mothers. One pup seal in particular is struggling to get a grasp of the swimming and its ironic that his nievity could get him eaten. We wait aroud for over an hour, but to no avail and in a way im glad not to have witnessed motger natures cruel ways, but a little dissapointed to have not seen an Orca, for now i will have to leave this to David Attenborough, but having seen all the animals i have in their natural environment leaves me warm inside. We arriive back to the hostel and I prepare dinner for us and Marie and Maty just a carbornara with a bit of salad but its delicious , a little practice of spanish and my bed is calling as tomorrow we are going Welsh.Read more