PUERTO PIRAMIDES

Puerto Piramides | Caleta Valdes | Punta Tombo Penguin Rookery | Punta Norte

Thirty two km from the Ameghino Isthmus, Puerto Pirámides is a seaside village sited at the extreme northwest tip of Golfo Nuevo, on Península Valdés.

The golden sands of Pirámides invite the traveler to sit on them and wonder at the sea and the whales plying the shore, or to roam up and down the beach hunting for weird and wonderful sea shells.

The village extends all the length of Pirámides Bay beachfront, where one can admire impressive sunsets and bright skies raging with stars.

The beaches, gently sloping down to the sea, are protected by pyramid-like cliffs where one can find great numbers of invertebrate fossil remains that can be up to nine million years old.

From here, visitors have a better chance to see the famous southern right whale, that arrives in June and stays in the waters of the gulf until December, to give birth and raise its own.

The waters adjacent to Península Valdés are its winter gathering area.

The whales migrate every year when food supplies due to a change in temperature.

These bays seem attractive to females that give birth to their young at this time (this is a safe area for raising young whales in their first moths of life).

The regular appearance of whales on the Argentinean coast has enabled the organizing of regular sightings, using the town of Puerto Pirámides as the center for this activity.

Golfo San José and the outer coast are inaccessible to tourism, as national and provincial laws have turned them into havens. Only the area near Puerto Pirámides is authorized for shipboard sighting activities.

Now, the southern right whale will gambol smoothly alongside the boats. This is safe both for the tourists and the whale, whose only danger is being "captured" on photo or film footage.

Puerto Pirámides is the only inhabited area on the reserve. It was created in 1900, when the village was a salt port with adobe, wood and metal sheeting huts.

Nowadays one can see the vestiges of those original buildings, such as Casa Pirámides, which currently displays an exhibit of craftwork done in dried seaweed.

The village's first inhabitant was Félix Olazábal, who in 1897 settled in a natural cave in the area of the present village. These caves are still visible on the western tip of the village, and some of them are occupied by firms specializing in whale sighting and scuba diving.

One gets there in an hour by car from Puerto Madryn (97 km on paved road). Its less than 150 permanent inhabitants live from the tourists who every year flock to this colourful and pleasant seaside village.