honeymoon dia 25 – peninsula valdez

we left camp in the early hours to avoid paying the entrance fee. nope. missed that by a few minutes it appears. off we went to explore peninsula valdez and the seal and sea lion population. the several hundred kilometers of driving were all on gravel roads, occasionally the kind you high-center on. the rental car company said to never brake on curves (duh) and not to exceed 50kmh when on gravel. not happening. besides, it’s kind of fun to drive 100+ kmh on gravel.

when we arrived at our first viewing location, rain greeted our rooftop. not seattle rain either; real rain. on a beach, with rain patterning above, we had a romantic early morning siesta in the car. i thought it was pleasant anyhow. rain stops and we head down.

the peninsula is highly protected. you’re not even supposed to get out of your car if not in a parking lot or designated pullout area. as such, getting up close and personal isn’t possible, but it’s still a good viewing. side note: the camera lens (borrowed) i used for today and yesterday apparently doesn’t like my camera and has resulted in blurry pictures :(.

our first site had maybe 10-15 males, which are huge creatures, and their harems. seemed like the biggest males, maybe 5-7 of them, had 2-3 ladies each. the smaller, younger males, had none. like the penguins, they’re quite the funny creatures. all day long, laying out in the sun, they bark at birds and have constant squabbles with fellow males. occasionally, some of the fights look pretty aggressive. mouths seem to be too small to do any real damage to each other, and normally after a 5-15 second fight, the two males will separate from each other a few feet, then lie down and attempt to rest. apparently, they spend ~3 months without eating or returning to the water as they guard their harems.


we were fortunate enough to see what looked like a newborn. the placenta was on the ground next to mom and the pup and the little guy could barely walk. the birds wanted a piece of the placenta, but the sea lions weren’t having it, barking and lunging towards the birds.



we drove to various other viewing locations, occasionally seeing penguins along with the sea lions. mostly though, the first stop was the best. our last stop was to go look at “bird island.” we went, we saw. it was okay, but seemingly nothing special.

now, needing a place to sleep, we spied a gravel road heading off just outside of the bird island area. car camp on the protected peninsula? heck no. when we drove the road, we found a restaurant-like building (not apparently open for business) and a row of tents and campers vehicles. we checked around and some random guy said to camp wherever and it was free. score! not too often you get to camp free on the beaches of the atlantic ocean.




as the sun set, bird island earned its name. although ~1 mile away, it was like being in the center of a bird race track (sorry, didn’t have a good analogy there). those guys squawked all night long and into the morning. name, justified.

average costs:
entry fee for peninsula valdez: 70 pesos each ($16)
rain drop siesta: free
atlantic coast beach camping: free
all photographs: https://picasaweb.google.com/mlh4480/HoneymoonDia25