penguins and orcas and whales, oh my! Puerto Madryn

With all the past difficulty I faced in posting blogs because everything was in spanish, well, this is computer has certaintly surpassed those difficulties because its in Hebrew. So, hopefully this will post.
I´ve made it to central Argentina, along the Atlantic coast to Puerto Madryn. Its a quaint, small, and adorable town right on the beach and within walking distance to everything. But its not the beach that makes this place fantastic, its the wildlife. I´ll start with day 2, which was yesterday.
We decided to rent a car amongst the 5 of us. I´m still traveling with the 2 swiss and candian people I met in Buenos Aires. A car gave us the freedom to tour at our leisure, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. So yesterday we drove about 90 minutes south of here to the Penguins. I had no idea what to expect, since the temperature is getting warm here and when I picture penguins, I think of emperor penguins in Antarctica. We start getting closer, and there are signs that for penguin crossing and i´m so excited I literally have my head hanging out of the window of our TINY Dodge Omni which is fitting 5 of us. There were over 70,000 penguins at this colony that we went to. It was so funny because it wasn´t the atmosphere that you expect to see penguins. The land looks desert like, but its right on the water...so there are these little 2 foot squagglers taht look like little people wandering around everywhere. The paths that you walk on are throughout the colony, so I sit down, and have 6 little critters walk upto me. There were mothers and babies, young penguins, and some even guarding their eggs. It was such a amazing site, and I was thrilled the entire time. When you look down at the water, there were thousands basking and swimming around...so funny!!
Today we drove to the peninsula that is connected to Puerto Madryn. This is where the whales and sealions are. Of course, I wake up first this morning, because we are supposed to catch our boat tour at 10am (yes, we opted for a tour which was a must to see the whales). Except, the boat is an hour from our hostel, and I´m trying to arise the 4 guys at 830 so we can get going. The boat tour took us out into an area of the peninsula where the Right Whales were. Not only did we see the whales, but there were 4 of them together, right next to our boat at one point. 3 adults, who were about 20 meters long each, and one baby, about 6 meters. It was amazing! You could see thim swimming under water and then these huge mammals would surface just feet awayfrom the edge of the boat. Wow. And than...my camera battery died. Crap.
After the boat ride we continued to drive around the peninsula stopping off along the way to walk and admire the sights. We saw thousands, literally, of sealions basking in the sun. The wildlife is so diverse and random as you drive around this area. It looks like barron desert like i said before, and there are cows, sheep, llama-type animals, jackrabbits, and caprybams (i think thats what they are called) running across the road in front of us the whole time, and 50 yards to the right is the ocean iwth whales, dolphins, and penguins! The locals said it was doubtful taht we would see any Orcas since their season is almost over, but maybe if we were lucky. Our last walk of the day, someone tells us that in the bay ahead 2 orcas were spotted earlier, so we should give it a look. Sure enough, as Benny and I approach, I immediately see the fins go up in the water. I thought the penguins were my highlight of this particular trip, but the orcas definitly win. We were quite a distance away so I couldnñt get pictures. Actually, my battery was dead so i couldnt get pictures regardless, but you oculd CLEAARLY see them! Plus we had binoculars so when they submerged to thetop and flailed around, you could see the entire whale. It was incredible. There were sealions all around, and you could see the orcas stalking the edge of the water.IT was like watching national geographic.
I think I´ll stay here for another day or two and do some kayaking and biking in the next days. I also think i figured out how to post pictures, so hopefully....