Coastal Patagonia

Just back from 5 days on the Patagonian coast with Dana and Sara -- a belated graduation present to Sara now that she's been living in Argentina for over two months. We started off at Gaiman, one of the Welsh villages Bruce Chatwin visited while writing "In Patagonia" some 30 years ago. People are still speaking Welsh there and the government of Wales gives scholarships to high school students to study at Welsh universities.

From Gaiman we set out to the Valdes Peninsula, an isolated, wind-swept Mecca for marine fauna, including southern right whales, elephant seals, penguins and petrels. The right whales are curious enough to come right up to the boats while the elephant seals eyed us warily, heading into the water if we got too close. We had time to wander beaches covered with 200 million-year-old oyster fossils while basing ourselves at a lighthouse-turned-hotel situated on the peninsula's southeast corner. All in all, a great trip to an amazing corner of this country. Photos to the right and an 8-second video of two whales approaching our boat below. Enjoy.