Península Valdés - Photo Gallery

Believe it or not, this is still Patagonia! Located 1800 km north of Ushuaia, on the East coast of Argentina, welcome to Península Valdés, a Unesco World Heritage site since 2009. At first we did not plan on visiting the peninsula, as it is quite renowned for whale watching and the season was way past us. But then another piece of information crossed our path: it might not be whale season, but it was certainly the best time to catch orcas hunting for sea lions on the shores of Punta Norte. Orcas! How impressive must they be!

Without thinking twice we drove north on Ruta 3 along Argentina’s coastline and arrived late on a Thursday night at the gate of the Reserva Nacional. The entrance fee was not cheap, but for the chance to see those beautiful creatures up close, it was worth it! We camped by the sea not too far from the entrance of the park (the peninsula is enormous) in front of the Bird island, a flat rock that once inspired the French writer Antoine de Saint Exupéry for his famous novel Le petit prince. Walking on the beach and watching flamingos fly by the rising sun the next morning was priceless.

After a quick stop by the information center we drove towards la Loberia, where a colony of sea lions lives all year round. We then stopped at the Salt Flat Chica and its impressive pink color. What a scenery! We had never seen anything like this! We stayed a while taking in the beauty of the site before enjoying a very nice homemade lunch.

Our next stop was Caleta Valdés, where we fell in love with the Magellanic penguins. I could not believe my eyes when we got out of the car to see them at arm’s reach. So close and so so cute! At this moment of the year the babies are changing feathers so the entire colony stays put. It was incredibly sweet to watch them walk and play. I honestly could have stayed there forever, but it was already time to reach Punta Norte for a chance to see killer whales.

Unfortunately they did not show themselves to us that day, and after more than two hours hoping for their coming we finally decided to head back to Puerto Pirámides and stayed the night at the local camping. Maybe tomorrow we would get lucky!

We arrived at Punta Norte a couple of hours before the afternoon high tide just to be told that they came in the morning and we had missed the show. We stayed until sunset nonetheless and camped by the road some 25km south, as we were not allowed to park overnight next to the viewpoint. As to make us feel better, the sky was particularly splendid that night and we saw a couple of shooting stars right above us.

Third day lucky day! On the next morning we woke up with a beautiful sunrise and reached Punta Norte at 8am sharp. The orcas where already there! Cameras out, we set up for two hours of oohs and aaaahs anytime one of these big mammals was coming out of the water. They stayed in the distance and did not try to catch sea lions on the shore, but we managed to see some of the white patches on their belly and a few tales. We were definitely very lucky to have witnessed this moment and got back on the road with big smiles.