Peninsula Valdes

It was Mike´s idea to head to the Peninsula for some wildlife watching. I hadn´t really taken any notice, still pre-occupied with the exoctic Patagonia.
We arrive in Puerto Piramides and the local campsite looks slightly worse, if that is at all possible, than the one in Viedma. We´re tired and cold from the wind so we opt for a cabaña instead. What I didn´t expect to see from our window was whales frolicking in the bay. I´m dubious about paying $120 (this is pesos rather than American dollars, so about 20 British Pound) for a 2 hour boat trip when I have this view (And I was also fortunate enough to swim with Minki whales on the Great Barrier Reef two years ago, which I didn´t think could be topped) but I don´t want to be a stick in the mud so go along with it all.
2pm the next day we head out on a large zodiac. There are 13 of us all with cameras at the ready. For the next two hours I take over 300 photographs but don´t worry, I wouldn´t bore you with all of them. Most of them are either splashes as I´ve just missed the whale jumping, or black blobs in the water, slightly Lochness Monsteresc. But I did get a few that I will hopefully get uploaded in the near future.

'Mum and bub in tail fin sequence'

For the entire trip, we zipped around the bay, stopping near enough to the whales not to scare them but close enough to get a great view, and watched mothers and their offspring frollicking, bull whales trying it on with the mothers, who just weren´t having any part of it, and curious calves who wondered what the zodiac was. There were so many. It was amazing. And although these weren´t the prettiest whales, barnacles everywhere, they were so beautiful to watch. I highly recommend a visit to Peninsula Valdes, Argentina, in November.