27/02: Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Category: General
Posted by: The Agnew Family
Yeah!!! We get to go off the ship today. Our excursion today is Estancia Experience, Punta Loma and & EcoCentro. This interprets to we visit a sheep farm, stop to see Sea Lions at a sheltered harbour and visit a museum with information on whales and other sea life in the local area.
Puerto Madryn was originally settled by people from Wales and there is still a large community of Welsh. There is also a German community that was settled in the late 1800’s. Our guide was an interesting fellow. He said his father’s side of the family are direct descendants from the original Welsh settlers and his mother’s family are direct descendants from the original German settlers.
Since we landed at low tide our guide said we should go see the sea lions first. Low tide means bigger beach which means more sea lions are sunning on the beach.
The shoreline near the sea lions cove.
Leaving the sea lions we drive through the desert to the estancia. Along the way we saw a herd of wild Guanaco.
The estancia.
Between our guide and the farm owner (he only spoke Spanish) we heard about life on the estancia. We also met a couple of gauchos (cowboys). One of the gauchos sheared a Ram. One thing I found interesting is that the gaucho was able to shear the sheep keeping most of the wool in one piece.
The ram (the one with the horns) is the one that’s getting shorn.
I got to help hold the sheep down …. Barely touching it, kept it on the ground. The gaucho sheering the Ram.
After a tasty snack and a look around the gift shop we were off to our last stop, the Eco Centre.
The Eco centre is in a very pretty location.
We opted to be let off the bus in the downtown area. On the way back to the ship we stopped at the end of the pier to watch a couple of penguins “fishing”. It’s amazing how fast they can swim.
This bird was also fishing and boy could he swim fast. At one point the penguins chased the bird away but he came back.
The dock area had a fair bit of wildlife. There were lots of birds including this tern.
and these sea lions.
A view of the pier and Puerto Madryn as the ship pulls out.
Puerto Madryn was originally settled by people from Wales and there is still a large community of Welsh. There is also a German community that was settled in the late 1800’s. Our guide was an interesting fellow. He said his father’s side of the family are direct descendants from the original Welsh settlers and his mother’s family are direct descendants from the original German settlers.
Since we landed at low tide our guide said we should go see the sea lions first. Low tide means bigger beach which means more sea lions are sunning on the beach.
The shoreline near the sea lions cove.
Leaving the sea lions we drive through the desert to the estancia. Along the way we saw a herd of wild Guanaco.
The estancia.
Between our guide and the farm owner (he only spoke Spanish) we heard about life on the estancia. We also met a couple of gauchos (cowboys). One of the gauchos sheared a Ram. One thing I found interesting is that the gaucho was able to shear the sheep keeping most of the wool in one piece.
The ram (the one with the horns) is the one that’s getting shorn.
I got to help hold the sheep down …. Barely touching it, kept it on the ground. The gaucho sheering the Ram.
After a tasty snack and a look around the gift shop we were off to our last stop, the Eco Centre.
The Eco centre is in a very pretty location.
We opted to be let off the bus in the downtown area. On the way back to the ship we stopped at the end of the pier to watch a couple of penguins “fishing”. It’s amazing how fast they can swim.
This bird was also fishing and boy could he swim fast. At one point the penguins chased the bird away but he came back.
The dock area had a fair bit of wildlife. There were lots of birds including this tern.
and these sea lions.
A view of the pier and Puerto Madryn as the ship pulls out.