瓦尔德斯半岛

3月底的时候,我们去了趟瓦尔德斯半岛,简直太好玩了!虽然当时不是观赏野生动物的最佳时机,不过我们很幸运。我们找到一个英语很棒的导游--Gaston Martin,超级友好,对这个地区的动物非常了解。他先来在Puerto Madryn的酒店接我们,离半岛有45分钟的车程。早知道就住在Puerto Piramides了,那儿离半岛更近。当我们想给路上的动物拍照时,Gaston也很乐意把车停下来让我们拍照。我们穿梭在麦哲伦企鹅之中,还看见了海狮,离它们不到90米。我们在一个羊场吃的午餐,因为时节关系,只看见几只海象在岸上悠闲地享受太阳的温暖。最好玩的就是看见逆戟鲸成群地往海滩上游来。我们的旅行太成功了,因为Gaston根据潮汐安排了行程,还跟我们介绍了许多这个地区和野生生物的信息。我们跟他度过了完美的一天,之后他还告诉我们,如果遇到任何困难都可以找他。这次旅行实在太棒了!

The coastline on the east side of Peninsula Valdes is just spectacular, with high and abrupt cliffs, crystal clear waters, and sandy beaches. These are all the domain of sea mammals. Large colonies of sea lions (they have newborn pups in Jan.) can be found along the east coast at the end of road 2 (close to Punta Delgada), while there is a good chance to see sea elephants resting on the sandy beaches, just off of provincial road 47. Then continuing a bit more north to Caleta Valdes, there is a substantial colony of Magellanic penguins (east end of road 52). Doing this circuit from Puerto Madryn is almost 400 km, and requires about 7.5 hours, as the roads on the peninsula are unpaved and sandy.

We toured with Forastero Tours out of Puerto Madryn. Could not have been more pleased.Only 6 in our comfortable van. We saw hundreds and hundreds of Sea Lions and pups. Giant "Beach Master" bulls with their heads held high. Did see some Elephant seals but few and far away. Numerous penguins and some Guanacos. Rita feed us a box lunch and took very good care of us. We were at the sites long before the big cruise buses got there.

When in Puerto Madryn, you have two choices 1. Head North to Peninsula Valdes for Sea Lions or 2. South to Pointe Tombe for Magellanic Penguins and a Welsh village.We headed north and very much enjoyed watching amazingly large male sea lions, female sea lions and three week old babies wandering the beach, We also had the chance to glimpse some Darwin's Rhea (ostriches) and Guanacos(llama-like) While the scenery was great and the animal life very interesting, the tour guide, Martin, was not having his best day. He answered questions asked of him, but seemed to have no general narration about the region or the sea lions. His specialty was the ostriches and so we learned a lot about them, but of course, we had come to see the sea lions. January is good for sea lions and Penguins but bad for whales. The tour was expensive, fairly dull, and not particularly informative. Tip : Don’t take this tour.

I have been diving with a lot of marine life, but no experience in the sea have been more fun than diving with sea lions... These amazing animals are fun an playful and even though the experience was a little prizy - it was worth every dime... We took of from Puerto Madryn in the early morning.. had a nice boat ride to the sea lion colony and put on the rest of the equipment.. The water was a bit cold and I had much more weight on than I prefer - but after a few moment in the water I realized why the weight was necessary.. After a few moments in the water - I found myself with my GoPro in one hand, a sea lion in the other hand (it was pulling my hand with is maw), another sea lion was bumping into my belly and a third was pulling at one of my fins... It was the most fun experience I ever had with marine life - the sea lions was playful like puppets and I would recommends everyone to go.. It was a "fundive" for sure, but nothing special regarding dive technique - it was shallow water maximum 5 meters depth - another option was to snorkel with the sea lions - though I believe the sea lions were more interested in the divers than the ones in the surface.We only went out once - I guess u could have a different experience if there is less sea lions in the water, but it is wild life so you can newer know for sure..

While some travelers refer to Peninsula Valdes as the entire area for watching wildlife in the Puerto Madryn area, actually it is quite a specific area, which does not include all the “attractions” the area has to offer (more specifically, it does not include the big Penguin colony in Punta Tumbo which is actually much closer to a town called Trelew than Puerto Madryn itself).We did a tour in the peninsula with a company called Flamenco Tours which were recommended both by Lonely Planet guidebook and by our hotel, the Dazzler, which seemed to be connected with them. Our guide, Lucia was lovely, had excellent English and was very knowledgable about the area and the wildlife.As we did the tour in January, whales weren’t around, but we did get to see elephant seals, lion seals and some penguins. How does it work? It’s a LONG tour for what you actually see. The company picked us up from our hotel at 7:45am, and we picked a few other passengers from hotels nearby. The van was ok, but a bit crowded for our group of about 14-15 people.We drove for about an hour until the park entrance, where after paying the entrance fee (180 peso, not included in the 560 peso tour price), we spent 30 minutes in the park museum. The museum gives a general overview of the area and the wildlife, and the main attraction is a huge whale skeleton on display. I would pass on this part.The best part was Punta Norte. It was another hour drive from the entrance, where we spent the better part of an hour watching the amusing lion seals mating and taking care of their babies. Some elephant seals were there too, but as they don’t move, watching them is pretty dull.You don’t get close to the seals, but rather watch from a balcony, about 20 meters away. The guide gave us binoculars to see them better.From there we drove for about an hour to another spot where we could watch just the elephant seals. We stayed there for a few moments, but as we couldn’t get close and (as mentioned), the elephant seals hardly move, the experience was as exciting as watching paint dry. Pass.After that, 5 minutes away, we arrived at Punta Cantor where we could watch a group of Patagonian Penguins. This was pretty exciting (not so much as the Tumbo experience, where you get to mingle with about a million Penguins) as you could watch the group from a viewing balcony, but a few did climb to the balcony and got pretty close to us. If that’s your only chance to see penguins, definitely go there, as they are really cute and fun.From there, we took another hour drive to a small town called Puerto Piramides. This was the worst part of the trip. We spent a couple of hours there, practically doing nothing. In whale season you can presumably watch whales there, but as this is still a part of the trip, even out of season, we just hanged there for almost two hours. At about 4:30pm we got back to the bus and took another hour drive back to Puerto Madryn.My recommendation is actually to skip this tour if you have two days in the area. Instead, take a tour to Punta Ninfa where you can actually get very close to the elephant seals and to Punta loma where you can watch sea lions. It’s a much shorter, more condensed tour without the redundant stuff that tour operators stuff into the day to make it longer. On your second day go to Punta Tombo to see a huge colony of penguins, and if you are interested do the boat ride to see the small dolphins.

I've been end of December 2014 on the Peninsula Valdes.I'm traveling by bicycle around the world and also Southamerica. I was cycling from Puerto Madryn to Piramides. And of course I paid 180 Pesos. The same like the foreign motorists. And much more than the argentinian motorists. But I'm just cycling. And cycling is a more environmentally friendly way to explore the nature. But that's not why I'm very disappointed.I camped 1 night at the campground in Piramides. The next day I started to the Punta Norte by bicycle. I cycled 78 km on a gravel road in 6 hours. I knew, it's forbidden to camp in the nature on Peninsula Valdes outside of Piramides. And as a nature friend I understand this. That's why I asked friendly the Ranger woman, if I could stay for 1 night at the Punte Norte Ranger Station. But these woman was very unfriendly to me. She told me always it's forbidden. Than she told me lot's of lies. It's dangerous for me. She got a storm warning. Lot's of rain the next day and it would be impossible for me to cycle again. Later she told me cycling is forbidden on Peninsula Valdes. But there is no sign that means cycling is forbidden.And it was not allowed to be outside after 5 pm. But I saw lot's of motorists after 5 pm.I aked her: 'How can I visit the Peninsula by bicycle, if I can not stay here for one night. I can not cycle 240 km in 1 day'. She told me: 'That's my problem. I'm just doing my work'. She called the police and the police car took me back to Piramides. That's unbelievable and stupid too. This Ranger woman is not thinking environmentally friendly. Cycling is the best way to explore the natur. There is no pollution, no noise and I don't waste petrol or diesel. And I don't kill animals like the motorists. I have see many dead animals. And I as a cyclist was discriminated against motorists.Because of this Ranger woman the police car wasted about 15 Liter (or more) of Diesel and made much pollution on 160 km !!!I'm thinking they just want make money. They don't want protect the nature. That's very sad. :-(And I paid with my money this unfriendly Ranger woman. I have just seen boring Pampa. Like anywhere outside of the Peninsula.I recommend to any tourist not to go on Peninsula Valdes. You will see much boring Pampa. I recommend to go to the Monte Lion Nationalpark. You will see a very beautiful nature and also Penguins and other animals there. For free! And you will see lot's of Guanacos and Nandus along the Ruta 3. And you can see many sea lions near Caleta Olivia also for free.

It was a long (about 2 hrs.) drive from the cruise ship terminal in Puerto Madryn to Peninsula Valdes beaches, but it was worth it. We saw many animals in the wild. It's hard to list all of them. Here is a short list: Guanacos (small lamas), Choique - Darwin's Rea (small ostrich), sea lions, elephant seals and very cute Magellanic Penguins, But the star attraction of the tour was a pod of orcas. We were looking at the beach populated heavily by elephant seals. Suddenly we saw a local ranger coming down from his observation post and shouting: "Orcas! Orcas!" We looked in the direction he pointed out and saw a pod of orcas coming to shore. Their tall, about 5', dorsal fins were cutting through ocean waters like submarines' periscopes. We thought we would be fortunate enough to observe orcas snatching baby seals right from the beach, as many animal lovers have watched at the NG Wild channel. Apparently, baby seals were too young, so they stayed far from the surf. Orcas didn't want to risk being beached and die. Therefore, after a thorough investigation, orcas turned around and left. We were at Peninsula Valdes in late December and orcas usually begin their unique seal snatching from the beach in late January through mid March, when baby seals grow big enough for venturing into surf. Overall, the Peninsula Valdes trip was an unforgettable experience, thanks to orcas.

The stars of Puerto Madryn are the animals by far. All depending on their season the SUPERstars whale, orka, sea lion, sea elephant, pinguino and dolphins can be seen somewhere around the city. Taking a trip to Peninsula Valdes is definitely one of the highlights of the area and a wise decision when your are only staying for a short period of time. During the whale season may-december you can spot whales, orka's during oktober-december, pinguino's during oktober-december and sea lions/elephants all season long. This means that between oktober-december you can see the big 5 all in 1 day along with loads of other small creatures. Perfect time management!If you have planned some extra days in Puerto Madryn like us (and you are not in whale season) it all depends if you should take the Peninsula Valdes tour worth about 500 peso per person. We went snorkeling with the lobos (sea lions) and took a trip to Punta Tombo to see the penguino's up close. The PV tour does more or less the same thing....we saw the sea lions (and elephants) from further away and a small colony of penguino's. They combine this with a so so small museum trip and the walking area overlooking some more sea lions/elephants. All cool in itself but not if you have taken this other close up trips individually as well. However, along came 3 lifesavers who saved my day from being a bit grumpy: ORKA's!!!! We saw the same 3 orka's twice during our trip in december with totally made my day. Seeing orka's is not a given so we were pretty lucky. So plan wisely but of course there are worse things that can happen then doubling up your fauna experience in such a cool part of the world.

We're a family of 5 traveling the world for 1 year. Lonely Planet's overview of the Peninsula Valdes was our inspiration for our 4-day visit to this amazing place - the chance to see penguins in their natural habitat was too tempting to pass up! We stayed at the very-simple-but-clean hostel. We scrimped on lodging so our budget could also handle the cost of animal-viewing excursions. Having been road-tripping through Argentina for 2 weeks, we were happy to find laundry services on the peninsula.One day we donned bright orange life vests to take a boat excursion to see Southern Right Whales. The biologist on board “guaranteed” that we’d see whales that day, and sure enough, we saw a half-dozen mother-baby pairs frolicking in the waters just outside of Puero Piramides. The next day we drove the 4 hour loop of the peninsula. We had gathered a lot of information from the museum/tourist-info building at the entrance of the national park, including maps, and chatted with the locals to determine our route. We giddily took selfies with the Magellanic Penquins in Punta Tombo, marveled at the Sea Elephants sunning themselves on the rocks at Punta Norte, and hoped-beyond-hope we’d catch a glimpse of the famous southern Orcas who hunt by beaching themselves on the shore (sadly, we didn’t, we were there outside of hunting-season). Our visit ended with a kayak tour to a Sea Lion colony. After just an hour of paddling, we rounded a corner to see rocks and caves covered with these curious, playful creatures. The young ones slipped and slid off their perches to swim and spyglass all around us. Their gorgeous brown eyes reflected the blue of the sea and their vocalizations made us laugh. Perhaps the best part, however, was that our teenage daughter, who normally turns her nose up at nature activities, admitted that this was one her favorite experience of our RTW trip so far.

This is a long day when done as a tour and most of it will be spent in the car driving. It stops at the interpretation centre, a tiny penguin colony which is of no interest had you already done Punta Tombo, the elephant seals, a small beach town and a colony of seal lions.The main reason we went on te tour was to see the elephant seals and in the hopes of spotting orcas. The elephant seals viewing platform is so far away from them you need binoculars and even then they are lying down facing the ocean so you can't see the trunks anyway. We didn't see any orcas either and I think the guide may have been lying to us saying there were none in Punta Norte just so he didn't have to drive the extra 100 or so kms.We regretted in the end not doing the afternoon tour to Punta Ninfas which is not part of the national park so you don't have to pay 180 pesos to get in and this also means you can get right up close to the elephant seals although the tour agencies still respect the one metre distance. Even though this tour is the same price 500 as the day one it would be worth it a lot more if you are after seeing the elephant seals properly.

We left Puerto Madryn very early and drove out to Peninsula Valdes in a small hire car, the roads are unpaved but easy to drive on once you get used to them and if you observe the speed limits !! We managed the full loop, lots of stops and still got back to Puerto Madryn by 7pmWe saw lots of wildlife including Orcas patrolling close to the beachIf you can, try to take binoculars with you for a better view

The nature in Peninsula Valdes is just amazing. Unfortunately we visited it just for one day in a rented car. If we knew before, we would like it so much I would stay at least one or two nights in Puerto Piramides and enjoyed it more. We travelled before in USA and Canada and thought that we saw similar things in Peninsula Valdes, but it's different and it's so beautiful. Puerto Piramides is just a charming, quite, small town in the middle of this natural reserve. Peninsula is quite big so it's impossible to visit all the interesting place and corners in one day especially if you don't want to hurry and you need a rented car. But the road is not bad, you just need to respect slower speed level and you can have just a simple small car. There's no need of 4x4. Unfortunately we didn't see any whales there but we were a bit disappointed to hear that we missed them in Puerto Piramides of one day but still we enjoyed the incredible nature and wildlife there. Anyway few tips for whales would be big whales from probably May - November, the main season is August - November, and the Orcas February, March. But still you see plenty of lamas all around, elephant seals, seals, pinguins, ostrich, armadillos, condors.....Puerto Madryn is about 1 hour drive from there.

Long ride but worth it. Saw lots of animals from elephant seals to penguins to rheas and armadillo affordable. Bring refreshments. Enjoy

First, the day spent in the park is absolutely incredible! The whale watching is magnificent (so many whales, it's like whale soup), and the elephant seals are amazing! It's a long day of driving, but the rewards are worth it. The only bad part of our trip was that the tour guide left us at the lighthouse restaurant. We had to catch another tour bus to catch with them. Very unprofessional, and no apology was offered. Don't eat at the lighthouse. It's expensive (although ours was free due to some screw-up), and the food and service are both poor. Our servers were high school students, it seemed, and it was impossible to get their attention. Very disinterested in their customers... They just want your dollars. Bring a lunch with you, and eat it at the overlook at the lighthouse.