The Penguins Of Punto Tombo

We’d read about and heard a rumour that there was a one million strong penguin colony on the central Patagonian coast, and our research showed that they were in town (shore) until the end of March - just like us! We were feeling lucky so caught another long distance night bus to the colder climes of Southern Argentina and the seaside town of Puerto Madryn. For this journey we traveled with Andesmar in the same class as before and though it was alright we’d definitely been spoiled by Rio Uruguay. It was raining very heavily in Buenos Aires so our bus was delayed by a few hours which meant our dinner was served at 1.30am, by this point we thought we weren’t getting anyway so were just glad to get fed.

Eventually we arrived in Puerto Madryn and headed straight to our Hostel Trapalanda for a hot shower, Steve also successfully searched out the nearest bakery for a freshly baked half dozen of empanadas to rebuild our strength. That afternoon we wandered the ghosttown, as it was practically Autumn the summer tourists were no longer in town and virtually every shop, tour agency and restaurant was closed for the daily siesta until 5pm. We managed to find a quaint beachfront bar for a beer and an Argentinian cappuccino, the twist for which was a spoonful of dulce de leche! 

Soon we were ready to brave the chilly winds again and set out to find a day trip down to Punto Tombo where the Magellanic Penguin colony live, luckily we were able to join one for the next morning.

Our minibus collected us around 8am and 90 minutes later we arrived at Punto Tumbo eager to spot our first penguin, especially as we’d just devoured a brochure full of facts and a ‘give way to penguins’ sign was one of the first things we saw.

This wildlife reserve is basically a 2km long path through where the penguins live in the wild, from November to March this colony are here to nest and care for their young. 

There were no babies when were there and a lot of the penguins had left already to swim to Southern Brazil but there were still thousands and many were adolescents around one year old trying to shed their fluffy brown feathers to reveal their sleek black and white coat beneath. 

It didn’t take us to spot our first penguin sheltering behind some leafless shrubs and the further we walked the more we saw. 

"Pinguino numero uno!"

We were freezing but these little guys seemed absolutely fine either stood in small groups, lying on their chubby stomachs or sheltering in their dug-out nests. 

If a penguin couple have had a successful courtship one year then they will return to the exact same next together the following year but they don’t spend the rest of the year together, penguins are very independent and once they finished breeding and raising their young they go their separate ways until the next season.

After about 30 minutes obsessively photographing our first penguins we made it to a small wooden bridge where a few of adorable penguins were hanging out together and we were able to get really close. 

"These guys were mid argument over something."

It was difficult to restrain ourselves from stroking or petting them, their faces are really expressive so we just wanted to give them a belly rub or something! 

"Please can we take this one home?!"

Once we found out that they like to bite and that their beaks have the pressure of up to 45kg we soon changed our mind, its also really important that these little guys don’t get too used to humans as they 100% live in the wild and need to look after themselves.

"Nice day for a swim.. if you're a penguin!"

"The stunning colours of the coast."

Next the path headed closer to the shore and there were a couple of great viewing platforms where we were able to spot a couple of penguins returning from a swim or fishing trip. They are so graceful in the sea but not so much when they are upright and waddling on the beach or across rocks, ridiculously cute though and we could easily watch them all day. 

Sadly we couldn’t and just as it started to rain we were making our way back to the carpark, sad to say goodbye to the penguins but glad to heading for shelter as it was so cold and a major shock to our system as we’d grown very accustomed to hot, sunny weather the past few months.

We had a pretty scary moment during our drive out of the wildlife reserve along a dusty gravel road. Our minibus was plodding along at a sensible pace, but unfortunately a driver coming the other way was not and lost control of his car. He veered right across our path as we were coming down a hill but luckily our driver slammed the brakes to avoid a collision by just a couple of meters. The sped passed us and up a verge where it flew meters above the ground and flipped over, Steve saw the drivers face pass by in complete shock and panic before the car disappeared over the bank. As soon as we had skidded to a stop everyone got off and ran over the bank to help, luckily nobody was hurt, the driver and passenger were out on their feet but the car roof was very much crushed. Thankfully we live to tell the tale!

Drama over and death avoided we continued on our journey to the Welsh village of Trelew, yes it seem the Welsh made a home in central Patagonia in an area with limited water resource that the Spanish and Portugese had paid no interest. We had a minibus tour of the town to marvel at the Welsh cottages and a school where they teach Welsh, then we entered the very expensive Tourist trap of a Welsh Tea House. 

"See you next year darling!"

We ordered tea for the six of us with no idea of price or what Welsh tea actually was. It turned out that Welsh tea involved pots of tea very much like English tea plus a selection of breads and cakes, literally six cakes per person. We were all a little overwhelmed by the volume of food, except Steve who does not have a cake limit. When the bill arrived we in shock again as it cost 130 ASR (£10) each!

With bellies full of tea and cake we made our way back to Puerto Madryn to ogle at the 400 photos of penguins we had taken that day. We thad a couple more nights in Puerto Madryn and decided against an excursion to the Valde Peninsula as their had been no Orca sightings recently. Instead we just relaxed at our hostel and made good use of their excellently equipped kitchen by cooking up some mean steak and pasta dishes. The restaurants in town held little appeal with their pizza and burger menus purely for tourists and some were very expensive. 

Seeing the penguins up close in their natural habitat was really special for us and we’re so glad that we made the journey to Patagonia to see them, the landscape in this part of Argentina is beautiful and very different to anywhere we’ve been so far on this trip. Our day trip for two to Punto Tombo cost about 500 ASR (£40).