By: Noemi Gamel

Why do whales fascinate us? Is it their immense size? Is it their ability to live in a world so foreign to us land dwellers? Or, could it just be their simple, raw, power and beauty?

If you ever find yourself in Argentina, be sure to visit the town of Puerto Madryn to go whale watching. I had been on a couple whale and dolphin excursions in Vancouver Island and Mexico, but this one blew them all out of the water…literally and figuratively. The tour started with a stop at a beach to watch right whales from the shore. I was highly skeptical of this setup at first. How many whales could we possibly watch from the beach and how close could we get? I wasn’t expecting much.

I was wrong! The whales were hanging out just offshore. We saw them without the need for binoculars. I did not count the number of whales, but a minute did not pass where one was in our direct line of sight. After this, our driver took us to the town of Puerto Piramides, where we took a whale watching boat around Peninsula Valdes.

Wow! We were all at a loss for words. We saw our first right whale less than fifteen minutes into the boat ride, and pretty much had one in our sight the entire time, often more then one. They swam very close to the boat. We were able to see exquisite displays of behavior such as breaching. We were fortunate enough to witness a mother with a baby.  She even brought the baby up to the boat to check us out. Kara and Tristan were speechless, which if you know our kids, is a huge deal.

What has been your favorite whale or dolphin watching experience? Let us know in the comments below.