Puerto Madryn

We were at sea for a day (29 March) from Punta del Este to reach Puerto Madryn (on 30 March), a small ‘city’ on the eastern coast of Argentina, about 1000km south of Buenos Aires. The city was founded and named by Welsh immigrants arriving in 1865 and more recently is famous for whale and other marine wildlife-spotting opportunities. Unfortunately we were out of season for seeing whales (hopefully for another day!) but we decided to walk down the pier and grab a local tour. We’d not been able to arrange anything in advance as it was Easter weekend but we were in luck as plenty of local tour companies had turned out to tout for the ships business. We weren’t keen on signing up to the ship-arranged tours either at prices four times as much!

After a brief coach trip around the city where we learnt about the history and local economy with aluminium and fishing plus tourism being the main activities, we drove out of the city along the coast. It was like a moonscape – fairly barren and sand dunes glowing in the sunlight.

After 20 minutes or so we reached Punta Loma, a natural reserve with a sea lion colony, the only permanent colony in South America apparently. There were lots of cormorants and seagulls resting on the cliffs around – the landscape was simply stunning. Elana and Bertie loved watching the sea lions frolicking on the beach and rocks and Bertie enjoyed recreating the roaring noise they made!

Much further down the coast (7-8 hour round trip) at the Valdes Peninsula you can see penguins, seals and in season, Southern Right Whales. We decided this was too far for the children and hoped we’d see penguins and whales elsewhere on our travels.

Back in the city we explored the seafront including several monuments, a local craft market, and of course the local park!Read more