Argentine coast

We continue south. Objectively, ruta 3, along the coast, is desperate. Always the same barbed wire out of sight, two or three sheep, guanacos and a few from time to time on the road, an armadillo as a distraction. Wood panels with peeling paint indicate the passage of an estancia to another, the huge agricultural estates where life should not have changed much since the arrival of early settlers. Here and there, we see solitary gauchos. Head back in their ponchos, bent over their horse, they struggle against the wind and do not see anything or anyone ...

The coast, however, wild and tortured, dazzles us. An impressive wildlife has taken up residence there. The largest population (and funniest!), Is still that of Magellanic penguins. They cross at Valdés is better acquainted with them at Punta Tombo and Cabo dos Bahias. It's spring, the eggs hatch and small gray balls invade the nests. The happy parents go fishing turns: while one is activated, the other stoically watching the little hungry. In the colony a beautiful cacophony reigns as the penguins return to their nest to the ear, recognizing the song of their partner. Penguins bellowed so solitary, but others, those who are married, also screams grow closer to the domestic scene as the serenade of life ... These scenes remind us terribly funny ours ...

We make one last stop on the coast, the park Monte Leon. No less than 60 000 hectares and 40 km of coastline, initially purchased by billionaire eco Douglas Tompkins (founder of Parque Pumalin also in Chile), then transferred to the Argentine government which made a national park. A nature reserve home to a variety of species that we are now familiar: guanacos, sea lions, Magellanic penguins, etc.. We walk our way on cliffs and beaches where cormorants and gulls are kings. Our only limit is the wind. Not the cool coastal breeze, no, Patagonian wind, relentless and furious. The door of a vehicle is pulled out before our eyes! Patagonia begins to teach us patience and the art of rushing out at the slightest lull as much to be realistic, this wind is part of the landscape and it does let go.