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Got so very excited about today I had to start my entry early! Part 1: Puerto Madryn is a small Argentinian town in northern Patagonia. It lies just off Peninsula Valdes which is home to all sorts of wildlife; Hence the reason why this place has been a hotspot on our list of places to visit from when we began planning our route all those months ago. 19 hours from Villa Gesell we arrived at a lovely little hostel, La Tosca, just a minutes walk from the town and beach and also holds a beautiful peer which extends 400metres into the ocean, great for wildlife! There was many trips to pick from here and as they where quite expensive we was limited to choosing just one. I of course wanted to do them all so picking was very tricky! We could choose from visiting Punto Tombo, the place which holds the second largest colony of penguins apart from Antarctica, 1 million penguins...Wow! There was also a trip to Punta Ninfas, which is an elephant seal colony where you could get up closer to them. However we decided on the main trip, the Peninsula Valdes itself. This was because we are in the Orca season and had the chance to see them, as rare as they are. It is classed as the 'Orca Phenomenon' that they choose to visit this shore to hunt. Aswell as Orcas we also had the chance of seeing Sea lions, Seals, Elephant Seals, Penguins, Armadillos and lots of other land animals and birds like Llamas and Rheas. Unfortunately we wasnt in the correct season for the more popular Southern Right Whale which only turns up from June till December. We was informed that Orca sightings are rare and that some people did days after days of trips to this Peninsula without even getting a glance so we was trying not to get our hopes up. This trip didn't let us down and we saw everything! We was extremely lucky to see the Orcas; only from a distance we could see the fins and then through the telescope we was lucky enough to see them surface and squirt the water! It was excellent and we had a brilliant day visiting the Peninsula and the different parts of it: Punta Norte for the Orcas and Sea Lions and then Punta Cantor for the Penguins and Elephant Seals. It was amazing seeing the animals in their own habitat and made any Zoo seem boring in comparison. It was definitely nature at it's best and especially with the way the penguins waddled about, such character! I have some great photos coming soon... Hayls and Jonathan x
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