Punta Tombo, Argentina - Day 31

We travelled on a bus to Puerto Madryn, Argetina to see penguins in a nature reserve south of the town. This particular penguin colony, in Punta Tombo, is the largest colony outside of Antarctica, with 400,000 penguins! The timing worked out very well, because they all had their baby chicks. The weird part was that Punta Tombo looks like a desert and it was about 80 degrees! The penguins get really hot and lay on the ground panting heavily with their wings and legs stretched out to try to keep cool. There is no water here, but the penguins have a special gland on their noses that enables them to drink salt water and filter the salt out. They constantly sneeze to expel the salt. It sounds very cute to hear thousands of penguins sneezing all around you.

A penguin beak duel!

Penguins need shade too.

This guy was too hot he couldn't even make it under the bridge.

They are not afraid of people...

 

...and are surprisingly still very curious of them, even though they see people every day.

Waddling to the beach to cool off!

Penguins are monogamous and the males arrive first to dig the burrows in this desert landscape before the females arrive to lay the eggs.

Infant penguin.

A typical nest with a parent watching over. Both the mom and dad take turns protecting the babies.

These little nuggets were nuzzling each other.