Rie and Zach Visit Peninsula Valdés

A much-delayed post from back in May--Rie's account of her trip to an isolated part of Patagonia with her son, Zach.

After two weeks visiting cities in Argentina, Zach and I were ready for some solitude. So, when Kath headed to Montevideo, we headed south to the Patagonian province of Chubut and Peninsula Valdés.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the peninsula covers approximately 3600 square kilometers and has over 400 kilometers of coastline. It is home to a wide variety of wildlife, mostly marine, and not much else.

We stayed in the only community -- Puerto Piramides -- population 250.

We spent whole days walking along the coast,

and the dunes,

and watching for the horse that got walked daily on the beach.

For Zach's birthday we joined a tour group to the far side of the peninsula where we saw guanacoes (camelids) and maras (large rodents), a few of the first southern right whales returning for the season, as well as sea lion and sea elephant colonies,

orcas patrolling the shore for careless sea lion pups,

grey fox,

and hairy armadillo.

We had been told that the penguins had all migrated north for the season, but while out on a solitary Mothers' Day walk we saw this little guy just hanging out.

And, of course, a few flowers caught my eye.

(MK)