Punta Tombo

Punta Tombo Reserve

Punta Tombo is a reserve located in Argentine Patagonia, on the coast of the bay of the same name. This three-kilometer-long sand and gravel beach has become an annual haven for millions of Magellanic penguins.

Penguins

Magellanic penguins are small in size – reaching only 50-70 cm tall with a weight of about 5-6 kg. At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, they were on the verge of extinction, but gradually their numbers began to recover, although now it is small by biological standards – about 1.8 million pairs on the globe. It is interesting that Magellanic penguins “one-love” – once joined, the male and female do not part then all their lives. Moreover, coming to Punta Tombo for nesting they find their old nest of a year ago and incubate eggs in it.

Tourists

More than 65,000 tourists from all over the world visit Punta Tombo every year.

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How to get here:

To get here you can either take a plane to Puerto Madryn (180km to Punta Tombo) or a plane to the Welsh settler town of Trelue (110km to Punta Tombo). Treliu will be even more interesting – you will try tea brewed “in Welsh style” and buy something from handmade sheep’s wool as a souvenir of Argentina.

For tourists in Punta Tombo, special paths and bridges are laid out so that people do not accidentally crush the burrow with a female penguin or otherwise harm these wonderful birds. Although the penguins themselves are not afraid of people at all – they can climb on the path and stand in a column, watching how near them, literally half a meter away, the guide explains something to a group of tourists. Such a zoo, who else is looking at whom – you can not make out.

Excursions

On a side note to tourists – some excursion programs include not only a visit to the reserve with penguins, but also a trip to the open sea on a high-speed motorboat to see packs of dolphins. Unlike whales, they do not swim close to the shore, but swim almost on the surface.

Back to the penguins. Here they continue their lineage and stay until the chicks get stronger, then the flocks go to Antarctica.

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At the beginning of the tour, you will definitely be warned that penguins need to be respected:

• you can not get too close to them and touch them, after all, they are wild animals – they can bite;
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• here, of course, they are at every step and are absolutely not embarrassed by people, live in their usual rhythm, however, do not get in the way of the penguin – it is unbelievable, but he can forget where he went and where his nest is;
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• In the reserve you should move with extreme caution, so as not to hit the nests with chicks or the parents themselves.

Separate from the penguins at Punta Tombo are llamas, flamingos near the river where the path to the dolphins begins as it flows out to sea, and small rodents.

Separate from the fauna habitat are sanctuary staff and zoological researchers.