Mar 1 Puerto Madryn -- Penguins

I'm running a little behind because we've been traveling away from the ship for the last 4 days, without a laptop, and without the time to do anything about pictures anyway.  Now that I'm back aboard, even with event filled days ahead, I should be able to get some pictures posted.

The first day of our four day overland trip to Iguazu Falls began with a local excursion to see penguins.  It was a 90-minute drive to El Pedral, where we would view penguins and have lunch.  After leaving the bustling city of Puerto Madryn, the road became a washboard gravel. At speeds above 10km/hr everything started to rattle and bump.  The bus driver (actually more like a passenger van) was weaving across the road to avoid the larger potholes/bumps but still managed to hit quite a few.  The weaving wasn't a problem, as we passed about 4 cars coming the other way.

That's another of our buses in front of us, and a truck passing us the other way -- one of four that day.  Dust everywhere.  Our guide said that PM has 300 days of sun and 300 days of wind per year.  We had sun but no wind, so the dust stayed above the road for us.

 Typical of the road surface. 

 There were a few sheep grazing along the way.  There's little rain here and it takes a lot of acres to support one sheep.

 We park the van and begin about a 1km hike to the beach.  The area is desert scrub -- not at all like March of the Penguins.

 We see our first penguin, hidden underneath the bush. They make nests by digging out an area underneath a bush.  We were there late in the season -- most chicks had fledged and were ready to go out on their own.  The adults were waiting for the molt to complete before they returned to the sea, to come back to the same mate at the same next in November.

 An unsuccessful egg.  The female lays two eggs, with a 1 in 4 chance that it will yield a  penguin that survives the first year.

 Another nest

 It was a warm day, temps in the high 80s.  The little guys were interested in the shade.

 We reach the shingle beach, following some penguins who are headed to the ocean.

 In this panorama with some creative fill at the top left and bottom right you can see the line of penguins looking at the sea.  Most of them were molting so they couldn't go into the water.  Molting takes about two weeks, so think of it as a long cleansing fast. These are Magellanic penguins, named for the explorer who wandered by here.

 A sea lion cruises by the beach, and the penguins retreat from the water's edge.  The sea lion is not a natural predator for the penguins, but it is opportunistic and will take a juvenile or cripple if one presents itself.

 There were a few penguins in the water, but not many

 A juvenile, with brown feathers

 The remains of a sea lion on the beach.  Someone has labeled major pieces -- humerus, mandible...

 As we return from the beach, lots of opportunities to see more penguins.  There are about 50K nesting pairs at this beach.

 Here's a penguin actively molting.  His chest is mostly without feathers as he awaits the new growth.

 They are not particularly afraid of humans, but will retreat if you advance towards them.

 At El Pedral they're cooking lamb for lunch.

 It's a nice location if you want to visit penguins.  There's a hotel here, and a swimming pool.  That's about it.

 The cooked lamb.  I had a bite.  Fortunately, the also served beef empenadas (as we got at every lunch/dinner of the four day period).

 The old family house, now a hotel.

 We also visited the lighthouse at the furthest point of land, marking the entrance to the bay in which sits Puerto Madryn.

 Not a very good picture, from a bumping van and through a window at a distance, but this is a guanaco, the largest South American wild mammal.  It looks like a cross between a llama and a camel.

After this day long adventure, we returned to ship, took a shower, had a quick sandwich and returned to the bus to go the airport and fly to Buenos Aires, where we arrived after midnight.  No pictures from BA.  I'll pick up the story in the next post.