ARGENTINA / SA. Last Updated: May 18, 2022

PENINSULA VALDES FOR UNIQUE WILDLIFE

This was our second visit to South America in 2020.

We were again in S. America for a conference – divided between Chile and Argentina. My husband since he was attending a meeting was given a Visa to enter both Chile and Argentina only once. While for me as a tourist I could enter multiple times. If you look at the map below Chile and Argentina run parallel to each other going south. It would have been so nice if we could crisscross but that was not to be.

We crossed into Argentina somewhere midway, which is known as the Lake District.

Stretching across the northwestern tip of Argentine Patagonia sits the picturesque Lake District. Sandwiched between the Andes Mountains with Chilean Patagonia to the west and Atlantic Patagonia to the east, the Lake District contains breathtaking vistas from nearly every angle.

It’s a land of glacial lakes with a backdrop of extinct volcanoes, their cones often coated with snow. There are swathes of bushy, barely touched forests. The air is Alpine-clear; the lake waters a rhapsody of midnight blues.

The most famous town in this area is San Carlos de Bariloche.  Famously called just Bariloche. We reached here by a boat journey. It very much reminds you of Austrian scenery. It is famous for local cheese. We were here just for a couple of days and of course we went to a restaurant for Swiss Fondue. A friend also advised us that he thinks San Martín de los Andes is prettier than

Bariloche and not so commercial. It is much smaller in size. When we went there we found it too quiet.

From Lake District, we traveled by bus to reach Peninsula Valdes. It was a long journey. People were dropped off at different hotels and we were last to be dropped off at a very quiet hotel.

Peninsula Valdes

Peninsula Valdés is a Patagonian nature reserve on the coast of Argentina. It is famous for four wild life one can see here. These are Elephant seals, Sea lions and Megallen penguins. In the right season whale watching is also popular.

First day we went to see Elephant seals and sea lions. We saw them from the top of a cliff.

As we went from one site to another our guide used to tell us how day by day Meallan Penguins are going back further south.

Punta Tombo Penguin Colony 

We went there on the last day and we saw about 15 -20 of them in the field.