Peninsula Valdés, Argentina

Sunrise this morning found National Geographic Explorer on approach to the dock in Puerto Madryn, where we planned to disembark for a day’s expedition to Peninsula Valdés, Argentina. An early breakfast and we were away, headed for a day of exploration among this wild, diverse, and remote peninsula in Patagonia.

Our first stop was the tiny town of Puerto Pirámides on the northeastern shore of Golfo Nuevo, where we boarded smaller whale watching boats to take us into the breeding and birthing grounds of the southern right whale. Here in protected waters we found mother and calf right whales sprinkled together across the bay. Some were breaching, some were resting, and some were just trying to avoid the vicious pecks of kelp gulls hungry for a meal at the expense of the whales!

Dear reader, have you ever seen the head of a southern right whale? I include a photo here as evidence to the strangeness. The mouth line looks like it couldn’t conceivable open, let alone close again, and the entire thing is covered with callosities, thickened skin patches turned white and covered with whale lice. Add to the collection very stubby and squared-off pectoral fins, an immensely broad back, and a huge tail and you may begin to see how hard it can be to make heads or tails of this animal when trying to view it in moderate sea conditions.

Luckily the tail was very whale-like and repeatedly being put on display for our inspection. But what is this? Rather than lift the tail flukes temporarily out of the water to make a dive, these right whales chose instead to hover vertically with their heads and bodies underwater, lifting their massive flukes high above the sea to catch the wind. Imagine it if you can…a whale tail sail! Right whales were sailing along, bobbing head down and flukes up above the white caps in this manner for several minutes at a time all around us.

Leaving the whales behind we journeyed further into the peninsula, stopping to look at guanacos, maras, and even armadillos as we went. Eventually we came to stop at a small Magellanic penguin colony near Estancia San Lorenzo. These penguins have chosen to dig their nesting burrows hundreds of meters inland from the sea at the base of creosote trees or in scrubby and thorny bushes. Even the familiar form of penguins seems so out of place here in this strange and exotic peninsula. When you come to Peninsula Valdés you must have a keen eye and an open mind, as things aren’t always as you imagine they should be!