Heading South...

Day 5:
February 10, 2013

Hey guys it's Sydney blogging here today! We ended up getting on our bus leaving La Plata at about seven last night and we made it to Peninsula Valdes at noon. It was the longest I have ever been forced to sit down for, and everyone's butt was in major pain after the first eleven hours. And I thought our ten hour layover in Chile was bad! Anyways, the temperature here is a little colder than what we have been used to the past couple days, it's in the mid 60s today. In Argentina the farther south you travel the colder the temperatures get since it is located beneath the equator.

Image of Valdes Peninsula from above

We checked into our hotel, Faro Punta Delgado, which is one of the few hotels on the peninsula. It was strange to be staying in a hotel where when you look out the window instead of just seeing tons of buildings and people you just see a wide expanse of land. It is so beautiful and quiet here. The first thing we did after checking in to the hotel was go to the Visitors Center. In there is a small museum which introduced us to the the unique flora and fauna that we might encounter. I learned that the Valdes Peninsula is almost an island, it is only connected to the mainland by 11 kilometer strip of land.

A colony of sea lions!

Getting around the peninsula coast on our own would have been a challenge so we went on a brief tour with InterHabit Tours. Peninsula Valdes is considered to be one of the best places to go whale watching in the whole world, but unfortunately it was not whale watching season. However, that did not mean that we didn't see lots of other cool animals along the way. The tour was mostly on boat, and we saw some colonies of sea lions when we passed the villa of Punta Piramides. Luckily we had brought binoculars so we could see the cute faces of the sea lions better. We also saw penguins and sea elephants on the coast of the town Caleta Verdes. Mostly on the tour we just got to take in some of the natural beauty of Argentina. It was really relaxing to be in nature unlike the past days that we have spent in cities. We then headed back to the hotel room where we could finally get a good night of sleep in.