Patagonia - November 22, 2024
Curious seals
Another long drive yesterday from our parrot beach location to a little fishing village, Camarones, 8 hour’s drive south. We are here for two nights and today we were out in boat seeking out marine animal and bird life. Spectacular day, high blue sky with the ever-present ocean wind taking the heat out of the air. The sea was turquoise and as flat as it ever gets, no white caps but a pleasant little swell, a fabulous day to be out on the water. Coated ourselves with sunblock and headed out in a 16 foot RIB, with two 115hp Yamaha outboards. There were 5 of us aboard, the boat captain, Leo, , a helper/guide and the three of us.
Some spectacular sightings, most notably a small group of Commerson’s dolphins which look like scaled down Orca, similar colour scheme but smaller in size. As dolphins do they raced ahead of the boat, circled around it and swam like living torpedoes along our side, periodically popping out of the water. Utterly charming.
El Sifón
We came across an unusual water feature called El Sifón, the syphon. It consisted of a small cleft in the rocky side of one of the islands which contains a rock in which a hole has worn through over time. When a wave enters the cleft, the force of the wave drives the water through the hole with a whistling roar and a spray fountains out of the hole high in the air. The process is repeated with every wave. Unusual and beautiful.
A couple of kilometres off-shore are three very low, barren islands populated by the expected checklist of marine mammals and birds. The list is long but many of the usual suspects, seals, sea lions, one gigantic elephant seal and colonies of sea birds, Imperial cormorants, skua, and interestingly, steamer ducks who are flightless. A fabulous display.
Commerson’s Dolphins
We spent a couple of hours just slowly cruising through the area watching and enjoying the spectacle as they in turn watched and enjoyed our antics.
Our boat captain took us to some open sea where he hoped that we would find more Commerson’s dolphins, watch and enjoy and then put the boat into idle and have some lunch. To set some context, while the itinerary was being developed I asked if we would have a chance to see any whales on this trip. I was told no, the chances were slim to none because of the season and the location. Imagine our surprise when we saw, arising from the sea a huge creature and the captain shouted, whale. There were in fact two humpback whales who circled the boat, periodically coming to the surface, blowing and then up tail into a dive.
Humpback Whale
While we ate empanadas made by the captain’s mother we watched the whales slowly swim out to sea, having made our day.
Fabulous day at sea!
Humpback Whale
More to come!
Click on the map to to follow my route
