The Southern Right Whale: beautiful, enormous, astonishing, and definitely not shy. When you travel to Peninsula Valdes you will witness just what I mean aboard one of the daily whale watching tour boats. The whales seem to appreciate the tourism just as much as we appreciate visiting them. All on board and full of emotion, our boat of tourists headed out into the Atlantic waters. Whales, as we learned from the well-informed guides, are highly vocal and rely on a variety of different sounds for underwater communication and navigation. Among the chatty sounds of the calls, clicks, buzzes, and water blowing that they produce, the sound of a boat motor is distinct. The other sounds may be used to communicate about where to find food, or when its time to change locations; but when they hear the boat motor, it can only mean one thing…it’s show time.

Puerto Pirámides - the gateway to the whales. From Puerto Madryn the typical tourist will arrive in this town, be rounded up in a tour group and taken out to sea for an incredible whale watching escapade. At the end of the day they may have seen their whales but missed the town all together. What a shame, it’s a small community but one worth getting to know.

The marine world surrounding Puerto Madryn is a remarkable and valuable feature to the community. To experience all that the wildlife has to offer, tourists can choose between one of the many businesses in town that provide sporty outdoor opportunities, such as scuba diving, Peninsula Valdez excursions, windsurfing, and kayaking. However, to gain a more educational and historical perspective on the marine ecosystems you have to head south toward El EcoCentro (the EcoCenter) located right outside of town.

While traveling through Patagonia one can expect to see lots of mountains, find many opportunities for trekking, and travel through many kilometers of flat, never-ending land. It is easy to forget about one other great stop along the way that stands out among the rest - Puerto Madryn. Puerto Madryn is the gateway to Peninsula Valdes where numerous tours take place every day for the traveler who is anxious to experience the awe and wonder of the sea creatures and to go whale-watching.

At certain times of the year, one can see the whales playing in the water from the beaches of the city.