by Elizabeth Coughlan

Created on: July 26, 2009

We saw so many amazing sights during our vacation in Argentina, but one of the most amusing was penguin watching. Our first encounter with these strange birds was in Punta Tombo, south of Puerto Madryn, where we were staying. We decided to take a taxi out to the penguin colony, rather than go on an organised tour. We did wonder what we had gotten into, however, as we bumped our way along a, seemingly unending, track. We glanced nervously at each other as all signs of habitation faded from view. The wilds of this part of Argentina are very strange. There is nothing there - apart from the occasional guanaco - no trees, only the occasional bush, with grassland stretching to the horizon.

The taxi finally stopped in the middle of nowhere and the driver indicated a sign at the beginning of a path. We had arrived. The driver agreed to wait for us for two hours. We didn't think we would need that long just to look at some penguins; how wrong we were! As we followed the track, we saw little heads peering out of holes in the ground and a few bigger penguins waddling about. They were much smaller than we had imagined, no more than two feet high (60 cm).

Gradually, as we followed the path, the whole penguin colony came into view; there were thousands of the funny little creatures! As we followed the viewing path, we read the signs posted along the way. We learned that these were Magellan penguins and there could be as many of 500,000 on this odd promontory sticking out like a finger into the ocean. We were surprised at the terrain. I don't really know what we were expecting, but it was almost desert-like, very rocky with some scrubby bushes, under which hundreds of penguins huddled.

As we walked among the birds, they took little notice of us, just cocked their heads to one side and looked at us curiously. We didn't go too close, though, as one of the notices said they could become quite aggressive if they feel threatened. Apparently, penguins are creatures of habit and they return every year to the same breeding ground to find their life-mate again. The best time to see these huge numbers of penguins is between November and January. The adult birds arrive about September, ready to mate, and the chicks are hatched in November. By January, all the birds are ready to leave for the fishing grounds, further north.

We were rather startled by the noise they made. I, for one, didn't think that penguins made any noise; but they do! They make a funny braying noise and they are sometimes called Jackass penguins because of it. We had to step carefully as some of the chicks were hiding in holes in the ground, but others seemed to be in a throng, with just a few adults guarding them. Other mature penguins were diving off the rocks into the sea. They are so beautiful to watch in the water. They are so graceful. It is hard to equate the funny ungainly creatures on the shore with those sleek bodies skimming through the water.

All too soon, it was time to return to the taxi, we wanted to stay for the rest of the day but we didn't want to risk the driver going off without us. I often think about that wonderful vacation when I walked among the penguins. It's such a precious memory. If I close my eyes I can still relive penguin watching in South America.

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