Porto Madryn

Steve and I took a 20 hour bus journey to Porto Madryn. This is south of Buenos Aires, in Patagonia in the Chubut region. Its essentially a desert (even though against all odds we saw rain- I think it might have had something to do with 3 English and an Irish being in the bus and PM wanted us to feel at home!) We had three days there, the first we went on a boat to see whales. There is a small cove where the mothers and babies stay for about 3 months to ensure the babies get strong. The males move off for more food fairly early on but the mothers stay with the babies.The whale is the Southern Right whale. They are one of the largest whales and they have barnacles on their bodies which also have parasites in them. They dont mind the barnacles as it helps protect their soft heads but the scientists dont know if the parasites hurt. We took a small rib out to see them and its only about 10 minutes motor and then the whales are super close. The would swim under the boat exploring and the babies were definitely curious. One of the whales turned upside down (the photo where you can see the side fins) this is because she wanted to stop the baby nursing- and the baby was not too happy about this. We also saw one of the largest whales present, she was gigantic!