Peninsula Valdes

My day was like a real life version of Jack´s favorite show "X-treme Animals". The Peninsula Valdes juts into the Atlantic and has been compared to an embryo on the Mother Argentina. Look on a map and you'll see why.
I took a tour to the peninsula which got off to a rocky start with the car breaking down. We drove through rolling desert with low shrubs and lots of open space. On the drive we saw guanacos (wild llamas) and lesser rheas which sort of look like ostriches. Then we got on a boat and saw Southern right whales in the southern bay. The mother whales deliver and nurse their babies in the bay. We saw at least 4 or 5 pairs. One mother had the baby on her back and every time she came up for air, it was a mess of fins and tails that were hard to figure out. They were very curious and the boat was able to get close - probably too close for marine mammal protection standards.
The next stop was Punta Norte on the peninsula which I was anxious to hurry through in order to get to the penguins. Punta Norte is mostly known as the hang out for elephant seals and sea lions - both of which we have plenty of in CA, so I wasn´t too impressed. There were not many of either left on the beach. Two sea lions and a few dozen juvenile elephant seals. It is also known as the only place where Orcas come ashore and grab baby sea lions for lunch. This is not the right time of year for that behavior, but we were there at high tide just in case. We were on a cliff with a great vantage point of the beach and surf. All of the sudden we realized cliff that there were a bunch of orcas very close to the shore along with a mother and baby Southern right whale. Turns out the orcas were trying to wear out the mother and eat the baby whale. According to the tour guide, they only eat the yummy parts of the baby and then leave it to die. Not to mention the orcas are about 1/5 the size of the baby, so they definitely needed the whole team to take this 1 month old down. In the end, it didn´t seem that they succeeded this time, but it was quite a captivating 15 minutes. One of the orcas was a baby with the mothers and aunts likely teaching him how to hunt.
Oh, the other cool thing was armadillos running all around the parking lot! They are like pesky dogs begging for food but in a very bizarre reptile meets a pig kind of way. They are hilarious. I have some great pictures.
We did finally get to the penguins, but the big news will be tomorrow when I go to the biggest colony outside of Antartica.
There is also a great Ecocenter here which is a science museum with a big library that has a reading room shaped like a lighthouse. From the top you can see the town, bay and peninsula. The hostel is nice - I finally made some friends again.
4 days until Dave arrives!!!!!!!!!!