Walking with Penguins-A trip to Punta Tombo

Walking with penguins

One of the activities we were super excited about when planning our time in Patagonia was visiting a penguin colony.  We ended up in Trelew as a home base for a trip to Punta Tombo, which is the largest single penguin colony on the South American subcontinent.

How to get there

Tourists and travelers have several options for visiting this amazing penguin colony.  Despite the fact that we really don’t like tours, we arrived in Trelew planning on taking a tour because we thought that was really our only option.  Luckily we went to the tourist office on Plaza Independencia to get information.  The super nice lady we met went through our options and told us that we could rent a car.

At that point we had been traveling around South America for almost 4 months.  We had yet to rent a car and drive ourselves anywhere.  In every place we had visited up until that point, it was simply cheaper and easier to go by bus.  But this had us intrigued as we would love to have as much time at Punta Tombo as we liked.

Tours- Travelers can take guided tours from Puerto Madryn or Trelew for about $25-30US for a half day tour.  From Puerto Madryn it is about a 2 hour drive (one way), and from Trelew it is about 75-90 minutes (one way).  Some tours only allow for about an hour at the site, so do your homework before booking a tour.

Car Rental- We ended up going this route because we didn’t want to be limited by time.  This proved to be a great option as it really wasn’t too much more expensive.  We paid about $60US to have a car for 24 hours, which was really nice to have after 4 months without one.  Entrance to the site is about $8US.

Penguins, penguins everywhere

What to do at the Reserve

The great thing about this wildlife reserve is that, as you can see by the pictures, tourists are literally walking with the penguins.  They are EVERYWHERE.  Upon entering Punta Tombo, there are paths winding all around this 1 square mile reserve where up to a half million penguins come between September and April.

At first, there aren’t too many penguins.  Walking around, you see them here and there, with some brave enough to cross the walking paths.  As you get further into the park, more and more penguins pop up everywhere.  The next thing you know it, they are everywhere.  Tourists aren’t allowed to touch the penguins, and they don’t seem bothered by people at all.

The highlight of the time at Punta Tombo is getting a good vantage point of the water.  Many of the babies go for their first swim in January and February, and catching a glimpse of all of them diving into the water and swimming around is a very memorable site.

One of the highlights was watching the penguins swimming

Be sure to come back on Friday to see the picture post from our time at Punta Tombo.  There will even be a few videos, including one of the penguins swimming, which is a fun thing to see.