Tuesday, 2nd October. Spent the morning on a slow drive to the Valdes peninsular and arrived at our hotel – the very nicely appointed Del Nomade, in Puerto Piramides by lunch time. The town, one short street and a collection of houses, cafes and shops with a slight Mexican feel to it, exists for one purpose – to facilitate the viewing of Whales – and facilitate they did!! We booked for the one and a half hour trip, leaving at 3.30 and went for a leisurely lunch. You can see the whales in the bay from the quay side, but we were completely unprepared for the experience that was to follow. The small inflatable boat with about thirty people on board, set out across the bay, taking in the local sea lion colony on route to the whales. The experience of seeing these majestic animals at close quarters was utterly amazing! They didn’t just occasionally pop their heads out of the water for a few seconds and then nothing. No these 15m. long, 45 ton creatures were everywhere! Mothers with their 3 month old calves were swimming alongside the boat for most of the hour we were in their ‘territory’. Turning, twisting, breaching, blowing and moaning – they were terribly ‘up close and personal’!! I’ve read trip reports about the whale watching from Puerto Piramides and always thought the accounts sounded rather exaggerated. Nothing could be further from the truth and I’m truly at a lost to adequately describe the experience. Hopefully a few pictures will capture a sense of it..once I get a good enough connection that is!

…and now with photos!