Next stop on our Tour of Patagonia was Península Valdes, a huge wildlife preserve on Argentina’s Atlantic Coast.
The peninsula is home to a variety of wildlife – elephant seals, sea lion & penguin colonies, along with a few sprawling sheep ranches (estancias). It’s a major whale-watching destination from May to December, too – but not during our visit.
It’s very quiet out there, partly because of all these signs:
Most visitors to the peninsula stay in the nearby town of Puerto Madryn, but that’s still a 3-4 hour drive away from the wildlife sites. We wanted to be closer to the action, so we booked a room at Estancia La Elvira on the peninsula itself. As the name suggests, it’s a working sheep ranch – but with 10 cozy hotel rooms and a swimming pool.
Staying on the peninsula was a bit of a splurge – probably the most expensive hotel of our entire trip – but it was worth it! Besides being closer to the wildlife, the setting was so peaceful – a welcome change from the big cities and touristy towns we’d seen so far. It was especially quiet during our 3-night stay, because we were the only guests!
My favorite part was sitting out on the patio at night after dinner, enjoying the cool breezes and waiting for the generators to shut off. When all the lights went out, the view of the stars was absolutely breathtaking:
We also got to do some horseback riding, which the kids absolutely loved – especially Hannah, who got to ride her own horse!
Thanks to Danielle we had our own transportation, so we spent most of our days here driving around to check out all the wildlife. It felt like being on safari, driving along the deserted dusty roads, watching various animals dart across our path or along the side of the road.
We saw lots of sheep and guanacos (above), along with Darwin’s Rheas, which look like ostriches but not quite as big. We even saw some very fast-moving mara, which look like a cross between a kangaroo and a jackrabbit:
That picture was taken at the Buenos Aires Zoo – the wild ones on the peninsula were way too fast to photograph.
Of course, that’s just what we saw on the way to the main wildlife attractions – the animals that live along the coast.
{ 2 comments }
I’d really enjoy that place! How the heck did you capture the stars like that. Great camera, even better photographer, I reckon?
just the Nikon, a tripod, and a super slow shutter. what was so amazing to me is that we forget those stars are always there because we can’t see them.
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