Friday February 14th, 2025 Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Updated: Feb 19
Puerto Madryn is a city in the Patagonia region of Argentina, it was founded in 1865, when 150 Welsh immigrants arriving aboard the clipper Mimosa named the natural port Porth Madryn in honor of Sir Love Jones-Parry, whose estate in Wales was called Madryn after the Welsh name for Saint Materiana. I have no idea what attracted a group of people from Wales to this part of South America, it’s a barren, dry and windswept area with only about 6” of rain per year – basically a desert. Welsh connections still exist today with regular visits from exchange students.
Queen Victoria was berthed at a very long pier leading from the center of town, the weather was overcast and a bit cooler than the previous few days as we are quite a bit further south, no rain was forecast.
Today we are going a long tour to the Valdez Peninsula, it’s a nature reserve about two hours from Puerto Madryn. Rather than the usual large coaches used for shore excursions our vehicle for the trip to the nature reserve was a small minivan with only 18 passengers; access to the reserve is only allowed with a guide in small groups. The van was pulled up right by the ship which was very convenient, and we were soon on our way.
Traveling north out of town I noticed some very impressive and modern villas along the shoreline with great views of the bay, which in season is known for its whale watching. Passing the large Aluminum works our guide mentioned that it was clearly the largest employer in the region – it even had its own pier where large ships could be seen offloading ore for smelting into Aluminum. Just on the edge of town was an old ceramic works, it looked abandoned.
Once clear of the town the landscape of Patagonia revealed itself; flat barren, dry and covered with low brush – basically a desert with a bit of vegetation, it stretched away as far as I could see. Not the prettiest of environments but it had a strange almost mystical feel to it, as if it was daring me to discover what it was hiding. The Valdes Peninsula is a UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s about 1400 square miles shaped like a big island with a narrow isthmus connecting it to the mainland. Our guide paid the entry fee (about $30 USD each) and we passed through the entry gate and into the reserve. Our first encounter was with the wild Guanaco that roam the reserve in quite large numbers, they are a close relative of Llamas and, because hunting is forbidden, quite unaffected by human presence. With a long neck, light brown coat and white underbelly the Guanaco were beautiful – I could see young ones feeding from their mothers right by the roadside. We also saw a few Rea – these are Ostrich like birds, though a bit smaller.
Speeding along the isthmus we could see water on both sides, with the Golfo Nuevo to the south and the Golfo San Jose to the north. About an hour out from the ship the tarmac road ended, and we continued on rough gravel tracks. The driver did not appear to slow down for the changed road conditions and as a result the underside of the van was subjected to a steady street of loud, sharp cracking sounds as the gravel pinged off the bodywork – it was like being in an armored personnel carrier entering a hot zone in Afghanistan, a purely movie based analogy. Up ahead I could see a vehicle on the same track speeding along kicking up a huge plume of dust and gravel in its wake, then I noticed, in the bottom left corner of the windscreen of our van a perfectly circular two inch hole that had been patched up – these vans certainly take a beating on this track.
It took another hour to reach the very northern tip of the peninsula, appropriately called Punta Norte. The track had become ever narrower as we progressed, finally it was down to a single lane which led to some pretty hairy encounters as vans were making their return journey. At Punta Norte there was a small visitor center, a lookout station and a raised wooden walkway along the clifftops that afforded great views down onto the beach. South Atlantic sea lions could be seen in large groups along the shore; the groups each consisted of about 20 females and one male with a huge mane just like an African lion – each group also had a set of young puppies playfully romping along. Occasionally Orcas have been seen taking sea lions from the beach, we waited but I guess it was just not Orca feeding time. Back in the van our guide mentioned that she had seen a couple of elephant seals on the beach, we didn’t spot them.
Driving west along the northern edge of the peninsula it took about 30 minutes to arrive at our next stop, the huge colony of Magellan penguins consisting of about 1 million birds – one of the largest in the world. Forget the vision of penguins sliding along on packs of ice and diving from icebergs, these penguins live quite nicely in the relatively mild climate with no snow or ice in sight. Magellan penguins mate for life and return to the same nest every year to hatch 2 eggs – with the male taking all of the egg sitting duty and the female providing the food.
We followed a gravel trail from the small parking lot; the trail was marked with a few rocks every yard or so on each side. There were penguins everywhere, mostly quiet and very docile – completely unphased by the humans romping through their territory. Occasionally a penguin would waddle over, stop at your feet, turn its head a little and look up as if confirming that you were indeed just another boring human. The trail meandered through the massive nesting area; the soil here was a soft sandy loam enabling the penguins to easily burrow down and create their subterranean nests – often below a spiky bush to provide an extra layer of defense against predators. The mature Magellan penguins are about two feet tall with a black back and white breast with a couple of white rings at the neck – there is a slight red / pink coloring above the eyes and across the top of the beak. Most of the young that we saw were about two months old with light grey plumage, several emitted a non-stop squark – announcing their need for food to their parents.
The nesting zone finally came to an end and the trail emerged onto a rocky beach area; an old whale skeleton could be seen sticking out of the beach on the left. Approaching the shore we could see a vast black line extending for miles into the distance right along the seafront, these penguins appeared to be just waiting around – obviously the sea is the source of their food, mostly anchovies, but none of the birds were feeding during our visit. Nevertheless it was a breathtaking sight.
During our return journey we stopped at a working sheep ranch for lunch, the Estancia San Lorenzo. The dining hall was set up in a former barn with many small tables arranged in a grid and an open fire, used to barbeque meat, at one end. For once the main fare was not beef as this part of Argentina is renowned for sheep. Plenty of the Argentine Malbec wine was flowing, a nice salad bowl, lots of fresh baked beard and, of course the delicious Argentine pasty – the empanada. Then a small box was placed on the table, it had blazing charcoal in the bottom and a metal plate on top with various pieces of meat and sausage. I concluded that the sheep in this region must be all skin and bone as there was very little meat on our platter. Not being a fan of lamb, Sandra had ordered a nice piece of barbequed chicken – I cast an envious eye over her plate, and she took pity on me.
We had an absolutely awesome time today, though the bus ride was long and at times rough, it was well worth it to see the Valdes Peninsula Nature Reserve and especially the massive penguin colony.
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