Puerto Madryn

Puerto Madryn is a city in the middle of nowhere and there is nothing to see there except a million of penguins and southern right whales, which is kinda of a compromise :)
I guess I got tired of a night bus, and was just sleeping everywhere. Was the first one to go to sleep in the dorm, and when other 7 people got in, I never heard them. Slept in the car to the tours both back and forth, something I was never been able to do before. I went to the tours with a more private and cheaper company. First we stopped at the beach with elephant seals. They just peacefully lie there, producing these weird sounds. The guide said is to get the salt out. We got pretty close to them, and I thought I could run away (just in case), that's until the guide started throwing stones at them. And the peaceful seals started growling, with sharp and fast movements towards us, their eyes got blood red, and opening their mouths as wide as they can. I don't think I could run away from that. The seals are about 4 meters long, and the way they move (like a wave), they could cover a distance of 3 meters with one move. That was very scary ! And he's like, come on, get a bit closer, I'll take a picture. Slowly, I got closer, smiled and got the hell out :)) Also, you can't stand between them and the sea, because it's their emergency exit, and they get upset, and when you get close, you can't stand up, since then you'll be taller then them, and they'll perceive it as a challenge. Then it was funny, the 2 males would fight for space, stand beside each other, growl, show their teeth, and half a minute later lie beside each other ... friends again :)
Next we drove the penguins. As soon as we got into the national park, we saw a penguin, and that was 3 kilometers from the ocean, I guess they like to walk. They're everywhere, and now all the penguins have babies, so the whole park was full of crying babies asking for food. These penguins dig holes, and just sit there, wait for their partners to come with some food. Some penguins were curious, so I played with them, gave them my hand which they pocked; sat beside one, and he was biting at my jeans (of course I let him :); One was turning his head (clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, counterclockwise) X 10 :) Then a lot were coming from the sea to feed their babies. I saw one feed, since it was sitting 1 meter from the path. The baby got so deep into the parent's throat that it almost disappeared :) Then another one was sun-tanning, and I sat beside him. He was good for a minute, until he got his wings up, head forward, and started to attack me ... ok, ok there penguin, I get your point.
Next day went to a whale trip. It's name is southern right whale because it lives in the "southern" hemisphere and is a "right" whale to kill. It's right because of its slow speed, its curiosity, it gets to the boat by itself, has a lot of fat, and floats when killed. Did I mention they are endangered?
The season has ended 2 days before I got there, but I still took my chances, and yep, there were still whales :) In the guidebook it said that the boat has to be with its engine off within a 100 meter radius from the whale and is not allowed to follow it, well I guess it's only guidebooks guidelines. They were close, but still a bit too far to clearly see. It was fun to see how they show their tail, but it means that they go deep, and off we went in search of another whale.
There were 3 people from the company on the boat. I was wondering why. I understood it when 2 whales, a mother and a baby approached really really close. A whale on the left side of the boat, MAXIMUM PROXIMITY! EVERYBODY KEEP YOUR SEATS, DO NOT MOVE TO ANOTHER SIDE OF THE BOAT!! Now I understood why, those people were running around, keeping everybody in their place, otherwise the boat would flip. The baby got about 1 meter away from where I was sitting, I was so concentrated about taking pictures, and looking through the camera, that I almost forgot to look at the actual thing, of course then I just got a few pictures of the sky and water, but at least I got a closer look :)) Then the 5.5 meter long, 5 tons heavy, and a 3 months old baby that demands 100 liters of milk a day, went right under the boat to another side where the mother appeared. ooooh, I wish I could be on the other side of the boat too !!!!!!!! :)))
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