Punta Loma

For our last day here in Puerto Madrin we went biking to "Punta Loma", a colony of sealinons some 15 km from here. The sandy road and the wind in our faces made it seem more like 150 km, but eventually we arrived. The place was quite impressive, a beach packed with sealions, to move they had to crawl over one another!
On the way back (being more like 5 km, with the wind in our backs) we took a little break on the beach. After a few minutes of watching the kitesurfers we saw a strange black object moving in the water. At first we thought it was a windsurfer trying to raise its sail or a buoy, but when it started spraying water there was no longer any doubt, it was a whale. Soon it was joined by 5 more and (this is actually true!!!) a bunch of flamingos flying back and forth over it!
Unfortunately we where to amazed to think about taking out our cameras before it was too late, however pictures of the flamingos and whales (though unfortunately not together) will be up tomorrow, when and if we find a good connection AND remember cables and the like!

Peninsula Valdes....

Since most of you voted for the whales' pictures, Here there are...
Today we went on a tour to Peninsula Valdes. Gustav did not sleep last night because he was afraid not to see any whale today (clap clap, he was tired all day), but he was wrong... There are 2000 whales in this small bay, they all come there for reproduction. This bay is simply infested with whales :-p... The main problem is that it is really hard to take good pictures (you never know when or where they come off), so I mainly enjoyed the show...

I hesitated between this picture and the one showing a majesteous whale's tail... But there you go...

One of the numerous jumps... Quite impressive when you think that this specie of whale weighs 30-50tons for up to 20meters... We were also explained the way the way the whale copulates, which will be censored here (you can put your guess in the comments - not anonymously - but I doubt you'll quite get there...).

I like this one too....

After one 1h30 spent on the boat, we went back to the harbour for lunch, then drove toa beach reserved exclusively to Elephant Seals.

You cant really guess from the picture, but these two males are about 4meters long, 4tons... It really looks huge in real life, especially compared to the female, which only weighs 700kgs (then again, you dont want to know how the reproduction works...).

And this picture is dedicated to Gregoire... and Pole nord (or to his poll suggestion, your choice!).

All these animals seemed fairly happy to know about Obama's election...

Your opinion is important to us...

I just added a new feature to the blog... You can now vote in the right panel of it. (Yes, I am in Patagonia, and I had nothing better to do...).
Gustav is feeling better, Tomorrow is the whales' day.
You can indeed email me suggestions for the poll.

Buenos Aires - part 2...

After our short excursion into Uruguay, we went back to Bs As to spend the weekend... John hosted us for a couple days in the Palermo district. We really had fun here, Bs As is a great city. We are heading to Puerto Madryn tomorrow (ouch, it's a 20 hour bus ride...).

Pictures to come - I forgot the camera cable :-p

Montevideo!

We are leaving Montevideo today, even though we just came! Well, we´ve seen plenty of it by now after two days of walking through its streets, plazas and beaches. Yesterday we visited the center and the plaza de armas. The town is a strange mix of beautiful and extremely ugly buildings, making it dificult to take good pictures, there`s always something that gets in the way! The city also has a huge harbour providing a bit of change to the long and (mostly) white beaches!
Today we have walked along the beach, looking at the palmtrees, the ocean (having a strange grey-brownish colour) and lots of freighter ships going up and down de Rio de la plata.
Soon we´ll be heading back to Buenos Aires where we still have lots to see! Tiem is getting short and there is still plenty of continent left beore Ushuaia!
(pictures will be up as soon as possible!)