Puerto Madryn on the east coast of Argentina is THE place for whale watching in Welsh Patagonia. December is the end of the season, so whilst there would be less whales, we could expect to see some mothers and calves of 4-6 months in age.

Welsh Patagonia

The town of Puerto Madryn is not very interesting and we found it just as expensive as other parts of Patagonia. Surrounded by flat and endless pampas, it has the dusty air of the Wild West about it. It, and the neighbouring towns of Trelew and Gaiman are of interest however, as they are the settlements of the Welsh people who undertook the long and arduous journey across the Atlantic in the 19^th century in order to find a new life. They must have been quite surprised when they arrived to see that the land of plenty that they had been promised by the Argentine government was a barren flat expanse of land. The history of the settlers, their struggles, achievements and legacy are captured well in this interesting documentary by the BBC’s Huw Edwards.

There is really nothing Welsh about Puerto Madryn anymore, other than the name, and unfortunately on the day we tried to visit Trelew and Gaiman (for the Welsh tea houses!) the road had been closed down completely. The best we could manage was a picture from the plane of the lush river valley that the original settlers had managed to create using an ingenious system of irrigation canals.

The Whales

So, enough of Wales, let’s talk about whales! The whales in this part of the world are Southern Right Whales. They spend the summer feeding in the far Southern Ocean near Antarctica and swim to Peninsula Valdes in order to breed and give birth. When the mother has a calf she doesn’t feed, so she and her baby will live off her fat reserves until the calf is strong enough to swim to the feeding grounds. The mothers that we saw had lost most of their reserves; this was most obvious around their pronounced blow holes.

Whale watching is done from the town of Puerto Piramides on the Peninsula Valdes, further north on the coast from Puerto Madryn. There are many tour operators offering incredibly long day trips to see the peninsula and the wildlife it has to offer like seals and penguins. We were only interested in the whales so we chose just to take a local bus from the central station. The bus stops at the park entrance where you pay your entrance fee, they then drop you in the town of Puerto Piramides where you can choose your whale watching trip. The bus timetable is a bit strange, we took a bus in the early morning and could not get a bus back until 6pm. Unless you are doing 2 trips out to see the whales then this is a really long time to be stuck in Puerto Piramides!

We chose a company called Southern Spirit as they had received good reviews on Trip Advisor. The cost is quite high at £60 per person, we would be very unhappy if we didn’t see whales!

We were kitted out with life vests and the two tier boat looked in good condition with 2 guides and a photographer. The first part of the sailing was the funny launch from the beach. The boats are pushed and pulled onto the sand by special tractors with metals enclosures for the boats. It’s quite something watching a boat come speeding in with such accuracy that it just plops into the metal cage perfectly!

It didn’t take long for us to start to see surfacing whales from a distance. The boat approached to a respectable distance and we could then have a good view of mothers with their calves. In fact the first whale that we saw was a calf; we were very surprised when its huge mother appeared next to it!

Mostly the whales were rolling in the water, going belly-up and breathing the air through their blow holes. We did see the calf breach (jump out of the water) a few times and at one point it was suckling. Those classic shots of whale tails as the whale dives or tail splashes are much harder to get!

This whale watching trip was a first for both of us. We were quite awestruck, firstly by their size and secondly by their quiet serenity. The tour seemed to be respectfully run; the boat came close enough for good views but didn’t chase the whales, and the animals didn’t seem to be bothered about our presence at all. This was certainly a very powerful experience of the animal kingdom and a fitting finale to our time in Patagonia.