Day 18 - 24/Jan/24 - Puerto Madryn, Argentina

 After a one day sail from Stanley, we arrived early at Puerto Madryn.  I checked my Marine Traffic app and saw that the Norwegian Star was already docked.  That means there will be over 5,000 tourists in town for the day.  As for us, we ate some breakfast, gathered our things, and went down to deck 1 where a significant line had formed to disembark the ship.  Just before 7:30am, the doors were opened and the PA announcement came that we were cleared and could disembark the ship.  We scanned off the ship to a waiting pier filled with HAL tour buses.  As for us, we were to meet our independent tour at the port gate which is at the beginning of a 3/4 mile long pier.  We walked the pier to the exit and easily found our tour company, Waira Tours, which I had booked online through Viator.  After a short wait we were escorted to our mini van where we waited for the rest of the tour participants to show up.

We left the port at 8:35am and were on our way with a full mini bus and our guide for the day, Diana.  She had an excellent PA system and explained what we would be doing and other commentary on the 3 hour journey to Punta Tombo, home to a very large Magellan penguin colony.  We had visited it some 8 years earlier.  Around an hour into the trip we passed by a life sized dinosaur which was erected to commemorate the finding of an entire skeleton nearby.  We also stopped at a service station for a bio break, and were soon off for 2 more hours of driving arriving at the site at 11:30.  

When we reached the visitor center, Diana checked us in and we were free to walk the pathway through the rookery.  Part of the path is a boardwalk, and part of it is gravel.  Scooters and mobility devices will have some difficulty in the gravel but the boardwalk is quite useable and goes for about a third of the length of the path.  And there are penguins from the very start.

We walked to the end of the path to the viewpoint snapping pictures of the penguins and the guanacos (llama like animals that are brown and white with really long legs.  They grazed in amongst the penguins.  The penguins here are free to roam and people have to yield to penguins.  The chicks are covered in fuzz and are just beginning to molt.  They can't go to the sea so the parents have to walk down to the beach, swim out to sea, feed, and then return to the nest and feed the youngsters by regurgitating their catch.  The chicks are just about the same size as the parents, and in some cases, a bit bigger.  But until they molt, they are dependent upon their parents for food.  They are super cute to say the least.

During our walk, we enjoyed a long discussion with a traveler from the Norwegian Star and he asked about seeing penguins in Port Stanley.  I shared with him my intel and he seemed appreciative.  Their ship was scheduled to depart at 4pm, an hour before ours.

We made it back to the visitor center by 12:45pm and chatted briefly with a Belgian motorcyclist who had just ridden in.  At the mini-bus we were given a box lunch with a couple sandwiches, a not bar, a chocolate cupcake, an apple and a bottle of water.  They were yummy and I finished mine before the bus left at 1:20pm.  We retraced our route back to Madryn with a slight detour through the city to show off some scenery.  We didn't take a bio break and we were back at the port by 3:45pm which allowed us to do a little local craft shopping.  We walked the 3/4 mile long pier and spotted some seals resting on stairs and joined the longest check in line we've ever had to reboard a ship during a cruise.  The line moved pretty fast, and 10 minutes later we were on the gangway looking back at a line that was longer than when we joined it.  It seems that here all of the excursions seem to come back at around the same time.  

When we joined the line 

On the gangway

Our route 

Here are a few tips about doing a penguin excursion in Puerto Madryn.  If you are going to Punta Tombo, it is a 2.5 - 3.0 hour drive there and a similar time back depending upon traffic.  That leaves 1.5 to 2 hours max for penguin watching.  It is important to get a tour that leaves as early as possible as this excursion will take the entire time in port.  HAL sells a tour for $200/person and we paid $133 for 2 people using Viator which I only booked in December.  It really doesn't matter who takes you there, because once you are at the rookery, it's a free for all.  If you book an independent tour, just make shire that there is still a HAL bus at the rookery when you leave.  I don't recommend renting a car; take a tour.  The same principles apply for taking a tour to any other rookery in the area.

Back onboard, we enjoyed a 5pm Canaletto dinner and watched the ship's departure.  After dinner, we listened to the music trivia before listening to two sets at Billboard Onboard: the first set was 60's tunes which we knew most of them.  The second set was Beattles songs which we again knew most of.  We didn't stay for the All Request set, but we returned to the room so I could update my blog.  

Tomorrow is a sea day so we can likely relax. The end of this voyage is getting closer. . .