Ballenas, pingüinos, y guanacos, Oh My!

For the last few days, Will & I have been in Patagonia, specifically a place called Península Valdés in the southern province of Chubut. It is basically a marine reserve/ playground for Southern Right Whales, Magellan penguins, and other wildlife.
To start from the beginning, first we hopped a bus from Bs As to Puerto Madryn, the town that is basically a jumping off point & tourist center for all Península Valdés-related activities. The 20 hour bus ride wasn't exactly as luxurious as we had been led to believe, even though we were in ejecutivo class. However, it was basically fine, and we were able to enjoy several different incarnations of ham & cheese and a few of the worst American movies never released at home that I've ever seen (the night started off with "Catch & Release," followed by "The Comeback Season," "Fast & the Furious III," and was almost redeemed at the end by "Rocky Balboa.")
We arrived to Puerto Madryn, a tiny and adorable seaside town, and made our way to Hostel El Gualicho. The first day we spent settling in, walking around the town, visiting a couple of very nice Oceanographic museums, and feeling like we were in Antarctica. I mean really, it was absolutely freezing that first day. We made friends with some local street dogs and figured out how to rent a car for the next day. The highlight of which was the guy at the car rental place telling me (apparently) how well I spoke Spanish, which I didn't understand until Will mentioned it later.
The next day we got up early, picked up our car - a tiny white Chevy Corsa - and started the drive to the Peninsula.
Puerto Pirámides is a little one-block town where all the whale-watching tours are based. After we figured out how to make the Corsa drive in reverse - with the help of a friendly local - we set off the make arrangements to see the whales.
An hour later, we were on the boat, motoring out into the gulf. Within ten minutes of leaving the shore, we saw our first whale. It was pretty much constant from then on, being surrounded by these huge amazing Ballenas Franco Austral - they swam up to the boat and nosed around, swam underneath us, poked their fins & tails out of the water, and basically lolled around in the ocean like big lazy puppies. It was indescribable to see whales up close like that. We got really lucky too, because tours the day before hadn't seen any whales at all. I could've spent the whole day out there but eventually we had to come back, feeling sort of dazed & elated by the whole experience.
We spent the rest of the day driving around the Peninsula - horrible gravel roads, but we entertained ourselves with car games and general insanity. It should be pointed out that by now Will and I are probably closer than a brother & sister, and instead of getting sick of each other, the more time we spend together the more we laugh uncontrollably and talk in an increasingly incoherent mixture of English, Spanish, and made-up slang.
The drive around the Peninsula was lovely and included vistas of elefant seals and penguins, which were awesome but sort of paled in comparison to seeing the whales.
We headed back to the hostel and went out for a drink with a big fun group of Deutschies.

On the agenda for the next day was Punta Tombo, a nature reserve for Magellan penguins. We were joined by Luisa, a super cool German girl from the hostel. The sun was finally shining and we started the drive with high hopes, which lasted until we got to Trelew, a town on the way that is best described by something Luisa said later in the day: "After driving through Trelew, I'm pretty sure there is nothing in this whole city that I like, except for maybe one little house somewhere... maybe."
First, to explain, good maps of the Península Valdés area do not exist. At all. We had about 5 different maps and each had totally conflicting and not at all similar theories about the route & distance from Puerto Madryn to Punta Tombo (248 km? 171 km? Quien sabe?)
We were lead to believe that from Trelew, there would be a gravel road going the rest of the way to Punta Tombo. After driving in circles for a while, we were on the verge of giving up. Everyone we asked for directions said the same thing, "Go up a few blocks, look for the signs, and ask someone else." Well, there were NO signs to look for. By the grace of God, we eventually found the road to Punta Tombo. But the confusion didn't end there. Here's an example of the road signs we found on that road (literally):

At the entrance to the road: Punta Tombo 115 km
Approximately 15 seconds later: Punta Tombo 76 km
Half an hour later: Penguins 95 km

We stuck it out for the hellish 3 hour drive to Punta Tombo, in good spirits but desperately hoping that whatever was on the other side of this road would be worth it. In addition, due to the total confusion on how long the drive was, we realized we didn't have nearly enough gas to make it back to civilization.
Well.
Things began to look up immediately once we got to Punta Tombo. A very kind park ranger siphoned some gas out of his own truck and gave it to us. We were introduced to a few young American scientists living at Punta Tombo & researching the penguins.
And then we entered the park... I didn't think anything could've compared with seeing whales the day before, but this did. Adorable Magellan penguins were EVERYWHERE. Waddling across the path, looking very formal with their little business suit-like feathers. They were totally unafraid of people and in fact, didn't even seem to notice we were there. Most of the penguins were sitting on their eggs but a few had newly hatched babies we were able to get a peek at, including one so young the broken eggshell was still there beside the Momma penguin. The penguins were so unbelievably cute and friendly, and Punta Tombo itself was gorgeous. We also saw guanacos and an armadillo.
The horrific drive to Punta Tombo faded from our minds and on the way back, we found a shortcut to the freeway and made it just in time to a gas station in Trelew, where we also had some life-saving ice cream.
We headed back to the hostel, bid Auf Wiedersehen to the German girls, who were headed to Barriloche, and had some fresh seafood paella for la cena.
Friday we souvenir-shopped and caught our bus back to BA. Overall, the trip couldn't have been much more perfect.