January 10, 2006 - Penguinitos


The tour of the penguin colony was excellent!

We drove for about 2 hrs. to reach the penguin's breeding ground. Over 1M penguins, including their babies! These were the Magallenic penguins and not the Emperor penguins (Antarctica). A little smaller and patterned differently from the Emperor penguins, but amazing. The only difference between the Magellenic penguins and the Emperor penguins (as we understand) is the Magallenic penguins will breed with the same partners for life, or until one dies and they will give birth to 2 babies. Whereas, the Emperor penguins will mate with a new partner every year and pop out only one baby.

Since the babies were born in November, they were almost as big as their parents, but they still had their grey fur coats.

We watched as the parents took turns to walk to the sea to get food and then bring it back to the nesting grounds to feed the babies. For some of them, it was a long walk.




These guys let us have our photos taken with them:


....And this little guy was just begging to have his photo taken!

Too soon we had to leave, but it was a memorable visit. If you haven't seen the documentary film "March of the Penguins", we really reccomend it. The film will give you great insight and respect for the penguins.
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Same day - We visited a Welsh community thereafter, which was really interesting. It was fascinating to learn about how the Welsh came to settle in this region. I believe it is now the 4th generation of Welsh inhabiting the area. The Argentinian government recognizes the Welsh language and so the area is officially considered bilingual. If I remember, this is a photo of the school in the community - bilingual: Spanish and Welsh.

Went to a "Ty House" where Princess Diana visited (or, we think she visited this tea house).

The tea was excellent (they really know how to brew their tea) and they give you homemade bread and jam/butter and an assortment of baked goods. So good. We ate most of the goodies before we took the photo, but you can still some of the good stuff.



It was a very good day. We left that evening for Buenos Aires.