Puerto Madryn

Puerto Madryn sits on the sheltered Golfo Nuevo, founded in 1865 when the first Welsh settlers landed here from the ship Mimosa, an origin still marked by monuments along the seafront. The modern city lives largely from the sea: an aluminium plant and port at one end, and at the other a tourist economy built on southern right whales, which come into the gulf to calve and mate from roughly June to December and can be watched from boats out of Puerto Pirámides or, at times, from the beach itself. It is also the base for Península Valdés an hour away, for diving in the gulf, and for trips south to the penguin colonies. The Ecocentro on the cliff explains the marine ecosystem.

History

The name goes back to 1863, when Love Jones-Parry, owner of the Madryn estate in Wales, and Lewis Jones sailed here to judge whether the region would suit a Welsh colony, and the town was founded on 28 July 1865, when 150 Welsh immigrants from the clipper Mimosa named the natural harbour Porth Madryn in his honour; conditions were hard, and the settlers had to dig irrigation ditches for their first crops. It grew with the Central Chubut Railway, built by Welsh, Spanish and Italian immigrants and opened in 1889 to Trelew along the lower Chubut valley, and in June 1982 Argentine prisoners of war from the Falklands were brought back to this port on the Canberra, the St Edmund and the Norland (Wikipedia, Puerto Madryn).

What you'll find

• The whale season - southern right whales in the gulf from winter into spring.
• The Welsh origins - monuments and museums recalling the 1865 landing.
• The Ecocentro - the clifftop marine interpretation centre.
• The gulf diving - shore and boat dives in sheltered water.

When to go

June to December for whales, with the peak generally from September to November. January and February bring beach crowds but no whales. Diving and Península Valdés wildlife run on their own overlapping calendars, so timing depends on what you came for.

Things to know

Whale numbers vary through the season and boat trips can be cancelled by wind. The city itself is functional rather than pretty. Everything worth seeing is a tour or a drive away, and costs mount quickly across boats, park fees and transport.

Nearby

Península Valdés lies northeast; Trelew, Gaiman and the Welsh valley are south.

Key facts