Peninsula Valdes (Chubut, AR)

We finally made our way to Peninsula Valdés (for travelers, worth reminding "do not underestimate how far this place is from Buenos Aires, Bariloche or Punta Arenas"). Most travelers visit the Peninsula for its biodiversity.

Peninsula Valdes may be a semiarid region in Argentinian Patagonia but boasts a coast inhabited by marine mammals such as sea lions or elephant seals. In turn, they attract other predators, such as Orcas. They were the main act we were hoping to see. There are also Armadillos, Guanacos, Rheas (like small ostriches), Maras (large rodents) and grey foxes, as well as all sorts of reptiles, insects and spiders. We did not arrive at the right time to see the Southern Right Whales which mate and then give birth between May and December. Just driving around, is quite a treat and one feels like they are in a Safari. Sometimes it is scary to think that the planet, if we managed to limit our influence, would be a lot more like that, everywhere.

A bit on the logistics: Puerto Madryn is the nearest town, however, if you stay there you have a lot of driving to do every day plus, you will need to pay entrance to the park every day too. Puerto Piramides is a small settlement in the Peninsula. It does not have all the amenities nor groceries you may want, but it is a much more sensible place to stay (and it has restaurants and a petrol station). Driving to the view points, is still quite a trek (80km to Punta Norte, on a road with no asphalt -  meaning you drive almost 200km every day).

We came to see the Orcas, as this is the only place on Earth where they put in practice a hunting technique which involves the animals beaching themselves in order to hunt sea lion pups.

The orcas and the pups

Orcas are one of the few mammals whose evolution, like that of humans, is driven by culture. This means that some Orcas specialised in hunting fish, others hunt mammals (like sea lions, sea elephants, blue whales, dolphins or even moose!) or birds (like penguins). Fish eating Orcas would not mix with mammal eating Orcas, they have distinct groups and they spend a lot of time in their pods learning how to collaborate with each other and teaching one another techniques.

We would love to tell you that if you turn up in March, let's say between 2pm and 4pm, you should be able to see the Orcas hunting. However, this is not a zoo nor some other spectacle where animals are playing tricks for human entertainment. This is nature. This means that in practice, seeing the Orcas is a real adventure which requires a fair bit of planning (you have to consider the tides) patience and some luck. In addition to this, the view points are sensitively located some distance away from the animals (they display their natural behaviors but you are unlikely to get the photo that wins next year National Geographic - this is reserved for a very select few and normally at a price).

We spent a lot of time getting to know the sea lions and their pups.
At low tide, they have some sheltered pools where they can safely play

The parents (mothers) sunbathing and keeping an eye out during high tide

Some other local fauna came to check us out and ask for some food (tourist are asked not to feed them but they still ask)

We got very lucky and managed to see the Orcas 3 times. The first time from quite a distance, but the second and third time fairly close. We got the feeling that they have this "rock star" personality as whenever they appeared, they put on a bit of a show (or maybe they are genuinely that interesting all of the time!) ;o)

Seaweed Tennis

We would be lying if we did not mention that by the end of the second day, we were quite in love with the sea lion pups and were not actually sad that we did not manage to witness the gore!

A selection of further photos in below slide show (or click here for higher resolution):

This is what it looks like, if you are part of the professional nature documentary crew: