Sea Lions and Penguins and Dolphins, oh my

I've been in Puerto Madryn, Patagonia for a couple of days. And for a place that looks like a desert, it has a TON of wildlife.

A couple of hours south in Punto Tombo, there is an enormous colony of Magellanic penguins. 170,000 of the cute buggers. There used to be 250,000 back in the 1980's, but the usual culprits (oil, climate change, overfishing ie. us, us, us) hit the population hard. Still, wherever you look, there's a penguin.


Punto Tombo Penguins from Tina Cone on Vimeo.

And if that wasn't enough cute for you, here's another much smaller colony of them on Peninsula Valdes, just north of Puerto Madryn.


Penguins in Peninsula Valdes from Tina Cone on Vimeo.

To the south, at Playa Union, you can see a species of dolphin that until now, I had no idea existed.  They are called Toninas Overas.  Please to enjoy, I certainly did!


Toninas from Tina Cone on Vimeo.

And on Peninsula Valdes, just north of Puerto Madryn, there's also a huge colony of Sea Lions on Peninsula Valdes, one or two elephant seals, Guanacos (a kind of llama), Armadillos, Rheas, and Maras (those things behind the Rhea, they are apparently close cousins to the rat).


Wildlife in Patagonia from Tina Cone on Vimeo.

By the way, the sea lions?  Took up the ENTIRE beach. And they smelled like week old sushi that's been left on the radiator. Yay nature!