Argentina: Trained Killers

After weeks of hiking in Patagonia (the southern area of Argentina and Chile), it was a nice change to head north for some warmer weather. (It's still weird for me to say 'north' is warmer, but remember, the closer you are to the equator, the warmer and more constant the weather is, generally).

A Guanacho (kind of like a llama) crossing the water.
Guanachos are one of the only mammals
that can drink salt water.

It was a straight 32 hour bus ride that brought me to Puerto Madryn, Argentina on the eastern coast of South America. Here, it's easy to take a one-day car trip around Peninsula Valdes, an area known around the world to see Right Whales breeding. You can stand on the shore and watch them in the water...you don't even need to get in a boat to see them! We weren't there for the whales, though, (June-December is the best time to see whales, and it was the end of March when we arrived). Peninsula Valdes is known for another animal phenomenon: it's the only place in the world where you can see orcas beach themselves in order to catch seal and sea lion pups from the shore.

 

Peninsulas are areas of land that stretch away from the mainland, like an island, but still connected. They're surrounded by water on three sides.

Orcas, otherwise known as killer whales, are actually not whales, they're dolphins. They are incredibly intelligent hunters. While on the boat to Antarctica, I learned that some kinds of orcas work in teams to hunt seals lounging on icebergs. One orca will nudge the iceberg underneath to try to push the seal off, then another one will nudge the other side. They'll keep rocking the iceberg until the seal gets tired or confused or falls off and they can catch it. To know that their prey is not sick, orcas only eat animals that they have hunted themselves.

When we arrived in Puerto Madryn, we were disappointed to hear that it had been a difficult year for spotting orcas. For unknown reasons, they weren't coming as close to the coast as usual and they were hunting for food in other areas. So we didn't have our hopes up very high.

Fortunately, there are a few other things to see on the peninsula. We stopped at a large sea lion colony and watched the pups play in the surf. Sea lions, and elephant seals make an awful racket, barking and slapping around on the sand.

We also saw our fourth penguin species: the Megallanic. Larger than the three types we saw in Antarctica, these were also much quieter. They burrowed into the dirt to get away from the hot sun.

While we were observing the penguins, a truck came barrelling along the road with a siren on top spinning and wailing. Our driver quickly called to us, waving his arms frantically. "Orcas!" He shouted, "They've spotted orcas." We ran to the van and climbed in. He drove us to one of the best orca viewing point on the peninsula.

We waited nervously as they weren't actually there yet. Someone had spotted them down the coast and they were heading in our direction. But they could decide to turn around or go further out to sea. We crossed our fingers. Then one person pointed, and another called out, and we turned to see a group of five orcas swimming towards us, extremely close to the shore.

I couldn't believe how close to the beach they were! We watched them swim back and forth for an hour, with seals lying right there on the beach and even some swimming in the water, but they didn't try to attack. It was still so incredible to see them so closely. We left feeling very lucky and satisfied with our experience!