29 November 2006
We left Buenos Aires at 3 PM on 28 November 2006 after spending the day exploring the Teatro Colon and Plaza de Mayo.
Finally, we arrived in Trelew at 10 AM, after 19 hours on a bus - actually two busses! The first one had a troubled AC unit which resulted in a 10 hour rainstorm in the back row of seats. The second bus was in much better shape, and treated us well for the final 9 hours of our trip. It was a long time of sitting, driving through fairly boring country - flat land and scrub brush vegetation. Luckily, we did an overnight ride, which took absorbed some of the time while attempting to sleep. Andrew and Michael succeeded better at that than myself! Oh well.
We have finally arrived in Patagonia!!!
Trelew was founded in the 1880s by Welsh immigrants; it was "established as head station for the railway track that linked the Lower Puerto Madryn, with railway building equipment and 400 settlers."
From Trelew, we took a day trip to Punto Tombo, where there is a large Magellanic penguin breeding colony. We were told that this breeding colony is the largest in the world that is this accessible to researchers. To our suprise, we were allowed to walk into the colony within inches of their dens; most had one adult penguin with two chicks. Apparently one parent gathers food, while the other protects the wee ones. . . Although the chicks apparently hatched about four weeks ago, there were still some full eggs in the dens, as well as some traces of the broken shells.
Some factoids:
-The adult magellanic penguin weighs between 4 and 5 kg.
-They reach sexual maturity within 4 or 5 years.
-They go to the shores of Punto Tombo in late August, first the males, then the females.
-The males reclaim the nests that were built the previous years
-They next up to 800 meters from the coast
-Females lay two eggs in early October
-Eggs are incubated 40 days by the male and female
-Newborns are coverred with dark grey down which is shed in February
Here we also found wonderfully soft rocks, shaped by glaciers and waves of the shore. Andrew and Michael collected several as I made fun of them.
7 comments:
Love penguins! and wee penguins! YAY
LOVE LOVE LOVE the photo the penguin is giving Leigh...must think up good caption but too tired right now...'night, kids!
I love penguins too. Who doesn't love penguins? They're just so damned cute... Have we ever told you about the great Oceanarium we went to in Lisbon? They had a wonderful penguin exhibit where you get really close to the birds and there's no glass or anything and it's really really cool... Very jealous of you two!
I will also add that these penguins have a Portuguese name! :)
they are unbelievably sweet we agree - a little gassy and smelly, but very sweet!
I believe these species are called 'Americans' from the Northern region. Factoids:
The males gather strange rock samples while the female makes fun of them. Next time we'll talk about their eating habits which seems to include large amounts of pastries.
Tee hee hee.
The penguins really are adorable!
Everyone I've ever talked to who has encountered penguins in the wild says they're just as much fun to watch as you'd imagine. I don't understand why humans are apparently biologically wired to love penguins. It makes no evolutionary sense.
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