Puerto Madryn

What a difference a day makes when you are traveling north in South America. Since leaving Puerto Montt (on the west coast of South America) eight days ago, the upper decks of the ship have been virtually empty. The pools were drained, and safety tape was strung across the steps. And to be honest, it was so windy and cold that even the guys making pizza and burgers on the Lido deck were wearing stocking caps and warm jackets. The loungers for Movies Under the Stars occasionally had people using them, but if they did, they were huddled under two or three lap blankets keeping warm.

Then yesterday we arrived in Puerto Madryn, which is almost directly across the continent from Puerto Montt, but on the east side, in Argentina. People were out on the decks, the loungers were being claimed and filled, the pools were being filled and suddenly it was looking like a Caribbean cruise ship instead of an Antarctic expedition. Looking over the railing we saw people in speedboats and jet skis zipping around wearing just bathing suits or shorts and tank tops.

Puerto Madryn is a beach town of about 100,000 residents. Big, wide sand beaches like Padre Island, only on a sweeping bay with the city plopped into the middle. People can drive onto the sand, so they do, and you see families having picnics on the beach, with the car parked next to the beach chairs and the kids building sand castles or the teenagers checking each other out. The beach is busy, but very uncrowded, and there is a wide sidewalk lined with palm trees, vendors, tour guides and people just strolling with their dogs. The sidewalk separates the busy Main Street and the city from the beach. I have to tell you all this, because I failed to take any pictures of this up close. <sigh>

We had booked an excursion here, which was titled "Dolphin and Sea Lion Safari*". *wildlife sightings not guaranteed. This entailed hiking down the pier 15 minutes to the beach and then climbing onboard a rigid inflatable boat, which is essentially a zodiac raft on steroids. It had those inflated-round-tube sides but with a fiberglass floor and held about 30 passengers. Once onboard, we were pushed into the water with a tractor, floated free of the boat trailer and off we went. Puerto Madryn is surrounded by nature preserves and ecological reserves, so where the city ends is just open space. And on the coast, among the coves and bays and cliff sides are a variety of animals. We went first to a nesting area filled with cormorants and terns. The sounds of the birds were easily heard over the engine of the boat and when we stopped and drifted it was just a cacophony of birds. Many of the terms were swooping nd swirling all around us. At this point, all the people jumped up to take pictures and because of where I was seated, all I really captured was pictures of the people, but there is one that includes some birds.

And of course, I was able to take a really good picture of all the people on the boat.

Next we headed off to where the sea lions gather. There are two beaches separated by a cliff. The first beach was the nursery, where the females give birth and raise the very young pups before they rejoin the rest of the colony on the cliff side. The cliffside is where the main families gather, with several harem groups consisting of one male and their females and immature offspring. This area is the one with natural slides down the cliff surface for entry into the water. And yes, there are some birds, here, too.

The last area is the Peter Pan beach. This is filled with male sea lions who don't have a harem so they just hang out together until they grow up into a bigger, stronger male and can amass their own harem.

After the sea lions we went to a further stretch of coast and were fortunate to spot and follow several pods of dolphins. These were the black/grey and white astral dolphins 🐬. It's mating and birthing season, so we spotted many displays of dolphins leaping fully out of the water and slapping back down on the water. The dolphins also seemingly loved to play with the boat, zipping back and forth under the boat, then surfacing within just a few feet. So close that we could hear their blowholes breathing. And the water was so clear that we could see them swimming along side us before surfacing. Now, do I have pictures of this? Nope, dolphins are very fast. I do have video, but I cannot post it here and I have no idea how to edit a clip and put it on Facebook....but it exists.

What I do have is this Where's Waldo picture of dolphins. Seriously, it looks just like open water, right? Nope, there are at least eight dolphins in this photo, mostly just dorsal fins or partial surfacing. The easiest to spot is smack dab in the middle of the picture, where that patch of whitecap is visible. That's a surfacing dolphin. That's the only one I'm going to give you....the rest you have to find for yourselves.