Patagonia… The thoughs lead to desert… But here called steppes. Puerto Madryn is the tourist capital, because it is located only 80 km. from Peninsula Valdez, which is famous for the sea wild life… Whales, sea lions, sea elephants, penquins, orcas and lots of birds… However
Everything has a season. And now, end of january, is NOT whale season. It is NOT mating season for sea lions, it is NOT mating season for Penquins and guess what. It isn’t mating season for Sea Elephant Seals either. So in other words: The wrong season for about everything of interest here. Anyway, of course I went on the 12 hour trip to Valdez (incl. 2 hours on a boat; 220 ARS ~ 60 USD). And I saw some sea lions, sea seal elephants, and a few penguins – but lacked the grandness of this place.
I am sure, that in the whale season – which starts mid july and ends mid december – must be magnificient here. So I’ll just swallow my dissapointment, and show you the pictures:
Lesson learned: Check when you are going here. Now – january – there is only the beach, which isn’t bad – but it is definetly not tropic even though the temperatures are.
The boat trip is NOT worth it, unless it is whale and/or dolphin season – and it was 100 ARS ~ 30 USD.
Diving
Yesterday I was diving here. Cold as hell. And very very poor visibility: 5 m. A long john +shortie, gloves, hood and boots to keep warm – and it barely did it… But it was worth it:
My first dive was with sea lions… Plenty of them. Playing, swimming and beeing really curious. A great great dive – even though the visibility was very bad. And it was cold.
The other dive was on a 60m wreck lying on 5-17 meter of water. Nice penetrations and beautiful inside the wreck, but after 30 minutes I was damn cold, and again the visibility wasen’t great, so I called it a dive… Expensive as hell: 650 ARS ~ USD 200 – because of the sea lions – but worth it. (There are only 4 places in the world, where you can dive with sea lions!)
