Animals in Argentina

Animals in Argentina cluster on a few coasts, in one jungle and on one plain. The Chubut coast comes first: Península Valdés, a UNESCO site since 1999, holds the gulfs where southern right whales breed from the austral winter into December, with elephant seals and sea lions on its beaches and Magellanic penguins nesting along the coast through the southern summer. At the Beagle Channel, boats from Ushuaia visit the sea lions of Isla de Lobos and the penguins of Isla Martillo, which is also reached from Estancia Harberton, founded in 1886. In the north-east, Iguazú adds the Bird Park on the Brazilian side and a jungle track inside the national park. On the pampas the animals are horses, and the Criollo is the hardy local breed.

Argentina animals tours run from the nearest gateway town. Puerto Madryn sends out a Valdés day of about twelve hours with whale watching as an option, a nine-hour day to a penguin colony, and two- and three-hour trips to the sea lions of Punta Loma. Ushuaia offers a three-hour catamaran to Isla de Lobos, five hours to Isla Martillo, and a ten-hour day that adds a canoe on the Beagle Channel. Puerto Iguazú pairs the Bird Park with the Brazilian falls in half a day or a full one. Around Buenos Aires the horse days last seven to ten hours: estancias near San Antonio de Areco, a polo lesson, a long ride at Carlos Keen. Bariloche and El Calafate offer rides on working ranches, and Salta sends a long 4x4 day to a flamingo lagoon.

Practical. The Patagonian penguin colonies are visited from September to March, the Isla Martillo trips from October to April, and whale-watching boats leave from Puerto Pirámides. The Chubut coast is dry and windy: Trelew, on the same coast, reaches 29C in January and 12C in July, so a windproof layer belongs in the bag in any month. Boats sail only when wind and swell allow. Keep your distance from the animals and do not touch or feed them.