Punta Tombo penguins

[mike35]

We will arrive in Puerto Madryn in January, and we would like to know if anyone on this board has taken the Punta Tombo shore excursion. It's rather lengthy (about 100 miles each way), which would take the whole day that we're in port.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[johnql]

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Punta Tombo. It was absolutely great being able to walk freely among hundreds of penguins in their native habitat. The only restriction was that no one is allowed to touch the penguins, but otherwise you could get as close as you wanted. You can observe them in their burrows or out in the open. In addition to the penguins, we saw a few rheas. Despite the long bus ride, I would highly recommend this excursion.

[mike35]

Thanks, John. I should have done a search prior to my OP - it appears unanimous that this is a great excursion. I only hope that we arrive in Puerto Madryn on time so that we can see Punta Tombo. We will want to do the tour with a private operator rather than use the ship's excursion. I've requested info from Port Compass tours.

 

Mike

[juliejoe]

Hello Mike,

 

We will be in Puerto Madryn January 14, on the Regal Princess. If Port Compass does not work out for you, you might want to check with the guide we will be using. whalespatagonia@infovia.com.ar

I have been communicating with Vanesa and we have planned a great day at Punta Tombo, Gaiman and will add Trelew if there is time. There will be 12 of us from our roll call taking this tour together, but they have a smaller vehicle and will accomodate smaller groups.

See pictures of Punta Tombo and tea house at Gaiman here: http://community.webshots.com/album/263904305RdZyKs/3

For information about Trelew, Gaiman & Puerto Madryn: http://patagonia-argentina.com/i/atlantica/puertomadryn/madryn.htm

 

Julie

[mike35]

Thanks, Julie. We're arriving on Jan 15. I just e-mailed your contact to inquire about a tour to Punta Tombo.

 

Mike

[dileep]

I have booked a Penguins Rookery tour with Whales Patagonia too for Jan 25.

[BCHappyGal]

To those of you talking to Whalespatagonia@infovia.com.ar I can recommend there services. They provided us wiht a tour to Tombo and the driver got us there about an hour ahead of all the ships buses. Thus we had the penguins and the bathrooms to ourselves. The ships tour buses were just leaving as we arrived. Plus our tour guide was very knowledgeable and provided us with lots of information. This tour is well worth the effort. To see all those penguins up close was great. Your biggest problem will be getting back far enough to get a photo of them.

 

On our return to Puerto Madryn our guide dropped us in town so that we could shop for 30 mins and then picked us up agian and returned us to the ship.

 

Book your own tour and save some money.

 

Ann

[coiran]

To those of you talking to Whalespatagonia@infovia.com.ar I can recommend there services. They provided us wiht a tour to Tombo and the driver got us there about an hour ahead of all the ships buses. Thus we had the penguins and the bathrooms to ourselves. The ships tour buses were just leaving as we arrived. Plus our tour guide was very knowledgeable and provided us with lots of information. This tour is well worth the effort. To see all those penguins up close was great. Your biggest problem will be getting back far enough to get a photo of them.

 

On our return to Puerto Madryn our guide dropped us in town so that we could shop for 30 mins and then picked us up agian and returned us to the ship.

 

Book your own tour and save some money.

 

Ann

 

How long is the ride from the port to Tombo?

Ron

[mike35]

A little less than 2 hours, from what I'm told.

 

Mike

[Host CMLA]

A little less than 2 hours, from what I'm told.

It's about 3 hours if you do the ship's tour. The buses go slower and a large part of the trip is on dirt roads. To make it in two hours you have to drive fast!

 

We hired a car and driver and an English speaking guide and we went on our own. Punta Tombo is about 3 hours away by car. We made it in two hours. Raoul, our driver, drove 160 km an hour on the paved road. We were on the paved road for about 40 minutes. Then you turn onto a dirt and gravel road where we did 100 km an hour for an hour and twenty minutes. FINALLY we made it to Punta Tombo. There are approximately 750,000 Magellanic penguins at this reserve. They’re everywhere and they’re accustomed to humans so it was easy to walk among them. You couldn’t walk two steps without running into a penguin. They were molting when we were there so you could see them scratching away to shed their feathers. Before leaving the reserve we stopped at the little gift shop/cafe and bought souvenirs and ate lambs meat empanadas. After we left there, we went to the town of Trelew and to the Paleontology Museum to see the dinosaur bones recovered from the area. Then we went to Puerto Madryn and got a tour of the city. After that, we asked our guide if we could do a little shopping, go to the post office and go to a grocery store to buy sodas and water to bring back to the ship. We had a wonderful day. The guide we had spoke excellent English and we saw everything there was to see. The best part was we were leaving the penguins as the ship's tour was getting there. We got plenty of time among the penguins without all those people.

 

As johnql said, they don't want you touching the penguins but that didn't stop the penguins from pecking at the laces of my tennis shoes. ;)

[Marie-Claude]

Cecilia:

 

May I ask during which month were you there?

[Host CMLA]

Cecilia:

 

May I ask during which month were you there?

March 2002. It was the last cruise of the season.

[2Fltravelers]

I have booked a Penguins Rookery tour with Whales Patagonia too for Jan 25.

 

 

We are also interested in Tambo. What price were you quoted by whalespatagonia for the private tour on the 25th? Have you heard of Flamenco tours in Puerto Madryn. They were recommended by Frommer's.

[scubadiver77]

March 2002. It was the last cruise of the season.

We will be there in early March. What was the weather like there at that time of the year.

[lynn21]

My husband and I will be in Puerto Madryn on 25 January and I have been in touch with Ileana at Whales Patagonia. She already has 2 people from our cruise booked to go to Punta Tombo in a car with a driver but no guide. She wanted us to share the car ($50 + $20 entrance pp) but we were not happy about three in the back for such a journey. I am hoping she will have enough people to put on a mini bus. She is keeping in touch with me so if there are 6 of us she may provide a bus.

[Host CMLA]

We will be there in early March. What was the weather like there at that time of the year.

I was there in early March too. It was warm in BA, Uraguay and Santiago. It was cooler in Puerto Madryn. It was chilly in the Falkland Islands. It was frigid and it snowed in Ushuaia. It warmed up some as we headed back up the coast. It was a bit chilly and extremely windy in Punta Arenas.

[relevart]

Definitely do Punta Tumbo. The penguins are everywhere and so much fun to watch. We did it through Port Compass. We left the ship early, stopped after an hour or so for coffee. Then when we got to the Rookery the driver, guide, friend and I had the whole place to ourselves for over an hour. We were told there were 450,000 penguins, but who knows! It was one of the highlights of the trip. It is a rough ride over dirt and gravel. We were in a small car but after getting there it didn't matter. After the buses started to come we left. We were supposed to stop there for lunch but were not hungry and instead talked the guide into taking us to a Welsh town before we went back to the ship. The guide and driver were great and as I recall it was cheaper than going on the bus. We were there the end of Feb.

[Bahama Kid]

I understand the penguins are here from September to mid March. We will be here on April 10th. Will the penguins have left for the season? Maybe it's not worth taking the long drive and not seeing anything?

[suz8483]

Hi RELEVART---Carol I'm from San Diego too! :) Thanks for the suggestion of Port Compass to see Punto Tombo penguins. I'll check on that. Another question for you. Did you visit Port Stanley and if so which is the best shore excursion to take: Sparrow Cove Penguin Adventure or Bluff Cove Penguin Rookery. I'll be there March 14. Is there much walking uphill with these tours?

[relevart]

Hi Pussa, we had planned on visiting Port Stanley. We were just going to rent a taxi and drive around. Unfortunately we couldn't go there because of the weather. we could see it from afar. We also couldn't go around the horn. We had 50 foot waves and 80mph winds where we were and it was worse further south. The captain said one hand was for you and the other hand was for the ship. He wasn't kidding. Many dishes broken etc. A glass in our bathroom fell to the floor and broke in the middle of the night. I am sorry we missed some things but it was quite an adventure!

[SuomiSailer]

I am interested in setting up a tour in Ushuaia. Who do you recommend?

[BCHappyGal]

Dear Lyn21

 

Pay the extra for a van as it is a long ride to be uncomfortable. However Tombo is well worth the trip and take a private tour as you will then beat all the ships buses and have the penguins to yourselves.

 

Ann

[Live4cruises]

We did BA - Santiago on Infinity in February 05. We were blessed with beautiful calm seas around the Horn.

 

We did the ship's excursions for Penguins in Port Stanley and Punta Arenas. Port Stanley was marvelous - we could get very near the penguins (or they near us - we were not supposed to go past a row of sticks) and could watch both the nesting group and a large number fishing and surfing. If was a highlight of the trip, especially since there was one pair of Kings with a chick. The penguin caves at Punta Arenas were a long bus trip, then about a mile walk in a gale wind to look through knot holes in a fence at penguins! We were very glad we had done Port Stanley!

Whatever you decide to do, you'll have a wonderful time. Make sure you take plenty of warm gear!

[mike35]

Apparently Celebrity does a completely different penguin tour from Puerto Arenas to Punta Tombo than the one we took privately (middle of January) (and also the ones taken by those on our Oceania Insignia's tour). After the drive, we walked less than five minutes and were absolutely surrounded by over 500,000 penguins - UP CLOSE AND VERY PERSONAL! No "knot holes" or fences at all!

 

Mike

[juliejoe]

Punta Tombo is visited as an excursion in the port of Puerto Madryn. On our recent Regal cruise, we missed Puerto Madryn as well as Stanley - so our only option for penguins was Punta Arenas and it was as described by Live4cruises. Certainly better than no penguin viewing at all, but definitely inferior to what we hoped for at Punta Tombo!