Sea Lions and Penguins and Whales, OH MY!

We slept really late today. It was awesome. I got one of the best night's sleep I've had in a long time. There were no sirens late or car alarms. This is a blissfully quiet town. Something about the waves and the sea, I think.

Today we drove a 200 km loop (128 miles) on a gravel road. This was not something that originally I was looking forward to, but the day was fantastic and I'm so glad that Mike's a die-hard motorist.


First, we drove to an area called Punta Cantor, where there is a colony of sea lions. We walked down a little path to a lookout on the beach to watch the sunbathing sealions. There were some massive ones - really big and fat. And we read in the guide that these males could have up to 20 females (called a harem, ha ha) that they have to constantly defend from the bachelor sea lions. I have a feeling if you work out here and know them by sight, it could be a little Melrose Place-ish.

Next we drove to Punta Norte. Here is a larger sea lion colony in the Spring - when they beach to have their babies. The fun part of being up there were the photos. If you were here in the Spring, you get to see the Orcas beach themselves trying to flood the baby sea lions out into the ocean to feed on. Apparently, it gets all "National Geographic" up there. I guess I'm a little sad to have missed out on the action, but the sea lions' faces are so sweet, I doubt I would be able to handle watching them be eaten by orcas.


On our final stop, we went to Estancia San Lorenzo. They own a stretch of beach where 400,000 Magellanic penguins come to nest. They had a biologist there to make sure the conditions of visitation were "appropriate" for the penguins. She led us right down to the area where the penguins were nesting. We got to see 4-6 day old penguins. Believe it or not, they look like little grey puff-balls - sort of like a chicken. And they make these really sweet peeping noises. The girls and I couldnt' get over how cute they were.

We returned our room late, but went out for dinner at a really "hip" place (according to Lonely Planet). When we got there at 8:30, there was only 1 other table of people. When we left at 10 - we had watched several people come in and not find a table and leave. The wifi was similar to 80's dial-up. :)

On our way home, we visited a few gift shops, but we were all exhausted so we decided to put off buying anything until tomorrow. What a fantastic day at the beach!