26th October: A visit to the Magellanic Penguin colony in Punta Tombo

Although I'd very intelligently set my alarm for 7.30pm, Clem managed to wake up just in time for us to pack our bags and catch the bus into Trelew.  There we joined a tour to Punta Tombo, the largest penguin colony in South America.  After an hour and a half's drive south, we pulled into the estancia that stands at the entrance to the reserve.  The chill wind swept across the steppe that makes up most of the Patagonian coast.

We started on the boardwalk towards the shore, and had imagined that the penguins would be out near the rocks.  We were therefore rather surprised when our guide pointed to one of the bushes to our left, under which we could see a small, black and white, Magellanic penguin.  We learned that it was a week or two after the eggs had been laid, so the penguins were busy incubating.  The males had arrived in August to prepare the nests ready for their mates' arrival the following month.  Although penguins are monogamous, not having the nest up to scratch could be a dumping offence.

A couple in their nest

A penguin incubating in its nest; males and females take turns

We followed the path down towards the shore, passing innumerable nests (there are a million penguins in the colony).  Some of the penguins were on the move, waddling down for a swim.  They were entirely unfussed by our presence, happily crossing the path (or passing under a low bridge in a couple of places).  We witnessed one penguin fighting with a bush, eventually emerging victorious with a small branch with which to decorate his nest.  Footage of the epic tussle is below.

Off in the distance we could see guanacos, camelids very similar to the vicunas we'd seen near San Pedro de Atacama.

A guanaco

Circling above were petrels and seagulls, doubtless looking for unattended eggs.  Down by the shore, penguins waddled down and flopped into the foaming ocean, mainly just messing around rather than actually swimming.  Clem gasped at how cute they were, in especially when waddling along.

After around an hour and a half among the penguins, it was time to head back.  We had a quick visit to a less-than-inspirational "Interpretation Centre", then the journey back to Trelew.  The rest of the tour group (around eight of them) was continuing on to Gaiman for a Welsh tea, so we hitched a lift back.  We then spent a fortune phoning hotels in Ushuaia, deciding that we needed to book early since Clem had read that some kind of games were being held there at the same time as we would be there.  We then caught the bus back to Trelew, to take the bus 14 hours south to Rio Gallegos.

Our bus (appropriately named El Pinguino) arrived more than 1 hour late, which made us slightly nervous (even John was losing its temper) because our next bus to El Chalten would leave only 90 minutes after our scheduled arrival in Rio Gallegos.