Argentina 2009

Tuesday17November

We are still in Patagonia in the province of Chubut, and especially we can take out shorts and short sleeves, it's beautiful and warm!

And today on the program: PUNTA TOMBO and its thousands of penguins living on the edge of the Ocean.

Rest assured, we are not going to the ice floe to visit the well-known emperor penguins but their cousins, the Magellanic penguins who have acclimated well to these warm latitudes!

A long gravel track takes us to the reserve

Here we are! Walkways are set up but the penguins are free to come and go as they please

Did you see the hidden one? on the left???  

In the fine sand and under the shrubs, the penguins have dug their nests.

Not to be confused with the penguin (pingouin in french)! although in English, manchot is said "penguin", and in Spanish, pingüino.......
For info, the penguin (manchot) does not fly and lives in the southern hemisphere. The auk (pingouin), on the other hand, flies and lives in the northern hemisphere.

Lucky for us, it's hatching time!
In October, the female generally lays 2 eggs (yes yes we can clearly see the second egg hidden behind) then 30 to 40 days later, the 2 little ones come out of their shells.

Under his mother, a little one hides sheltered from the wind (right photo)

A herd of guanacos coexists with penguins.

"The guanaco (Lama guanicoe or Lama glama guanicoe) from Quechua huanacu, "llama", is a wild camelid present in South America. Related to the llama it has not been domesticated, unlike the latter." © Wikipedia

Not so clumsy (manchot in french) in the middle of vast spaces!

Alone in the world?

No ! There is always a buddy around!

Even lots of buddies!

It must be said, they are too funny! Their waddling and their ways of being in a group make it a permanent play

The penguin is an excellent swimmer, it can reach speeds of 8 km/h.

We are treated to a little dance: face to face, they look at each other while tilting their head to the right, then to the left

Continuation of the parade from earlier?

The site is protected. Nests are listed and numbered.

After this long walk among the penguins, we head up the coast to the next stop: the Valdes Peninsula where we will encounter whales and elephant seals!

We arrive on the peninsula at the beginning of the night... We settle in the only campsite on the peninsula in Puerto Pyramides and prepare a barbecue with a big piece of beef that we bought on the road

Enticed by the smell, we immediately make a new friend... this superb labrador that we will christen "Lamppost"......

Lamppost at the height of his art: the great scene of "haaaa!!! I'm dying!!! I'm hungry!!!"