Puerto Madryn is a destination closely related to marine fauna watching. There are many species that chose the region to mate and have young.
Most of the tourists who choose the destination come in search of the whales and penguins that come every year in the season of:
- Whales from June to December
- Penguins from September to March
Now, if I have to talk about the experience that I enjoyed the most in my 4 days in Madryn, it was not one of the classic ones. The one that really was tremendous for me was swimming with Sea Lions.
One of the main reasons is because the water is very transparent and these marine mammals are not shy and come to the point of swimming next to you in a kind of interactive game. They are totally harmless and it looks like they are having fun with one.
Our experience started early in the morning. We went to a dive station on the beach where we had been summoned to try on the wetsuit, which is extremely necessary given the cold water temperature. They also gave us the mask and the frog legs.
Once with all the equipment in hand, we walked a few meters to a boat that was waiting for us to start the adventure. We sail for about 20 to 30 minutes, always bordering the coast until we reach the Punta Loma sea lion colony. It is in a protected natural area. For this reason the tours are in small groups. In our boat we were 6 people.
Before diving into the water, the guide told us what we could do, how to respect the rules of the place so as not to disturb the animals and how far we could swim.
Before jumping into the water it was already very nice to hear the sounds of the wolves framed in the dry landscape of the coast. The real description of the situation seen from the boat out of the water is that of these creatures sunbathing, fishing and interacting with each other. It is a sight to see a lot of these animals in constant movement entering and leaving the sea.
Now what was really spectacular was the moment to swim and dive with them. As soon as I got in, I ran a few meters from the boat and immediately the animals saw us, they got very curious and came to us. There were about 10 wolves coming and going around me. One even passed between my legs.
It is very incredible since they almost let you touch them, it seems as if they play.
We were in the water swimming for about 30 minutes then we returned to town!
I have done many excursions throughout my life, but this one really was special because there are not so many wild animals that one can interact with in that way.
I recommend that you do this excursion and then tell me and leave a comment about it.