PENINSULA VALDEZ
The Valdes Peninsula (Spanish Península Valdés) is a peninsula along the Atlantic coast in Chubut Province, Argentina. Its size is about 3,625 km2. The nearest large town is Puerto Madryn. Most of the peninsula is barren land with some salt water lakes. The largest of these lakes is at an elevation of about 40 m below sea level, the lowest elevation in Argentina and South America. It is an important nature reserve which was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. The coastline is inhabited by marine mammals, like eared seals and elephant seals. Southern right whales can be found in the Golfo Nuevo between the peninsula and the Patagonian mainland. These baleen whales come here during the second half of the year, for mating and giving birth, because the water in the gulf is quieter and warmer than in the open sea. Orcas can be found off the coast, in the open sea off the peninsula. The inner part of the peninsula is inhabited by ñandúes, guanacos and maras.
PUERTO MADRYN
- a city of almost 50,000 inhabitants, located to the northeast of the Chubut province beside the Nuevo gulf to the south of the Peninsula Valdes, been founded in 1886 when the project of the railroad that unite it to Trelew is summed up. It grows vertiginously starting from the development of the tourism in the 60’s and with the construction of an aluminium plant producer (ALUAR) in the decade of the 1970. It has an important hotel infrastructure and it is visited by tourists of all parts of the world that use it as entrance door to the Valdes peninsula right whale watching. Besides the whale watching, Puerto Madryn has other tourist alternatives as the diving (is considered the capital of the Argentinean diving) that allow the observation of the submarine flora and fauna due to the transparency of its waters. Another option is the mining tourism, entering to the depths of a mine of minerals located in Bajos del Gualicho, 130 kilometres to the northwest of the city. Puerto Madryn is an attractive city itself, where it is very pleasant to go for a walk by its beautiful coastal avenue, to enjoy the calm beaches of transparent water, or to travel by car the surroundings with spectacular views of the cliffs on the sea. In the industrial park area is located the jetty Almirante Storni built in the decade of the 70’s that goes into the sea 1.5 kilometres. There it is worthwhile to visit the fish processing plant and the aluminium plant mentioned at the beginning.
