What was a sleepy Patagonian town of 20,000 a generation ago has blossomed to more than 45,000 residents living by the Valdes Peninsula - one of the world's top marine reserves. Fishing is still an important employer and four packing plants line the northeastern shore of the deep-water port, but Puerto Madryn has found another vocation for its geography. In 1972 we had seven people come here to see the whales. He started Punta Ballena touring company more than 20 years ago and now commands a fleet of six ships that shuttle busloads of tourists daily to watch killer whales and southern right whales frolicking near the coastline.
People are more interested in eco-tourism now.
Spaniards, Italians who have family in Argentina, many Germans and Swiss. The world's population of southern right whales is about 7,000 and there are 2,500 who come to breed and calve in the Valdes Peninsula. Pajaros not only boasts an array of gulls, cormorants, flamingos and oystercatchers but also a place in literary history. Saint-Exupery used to fly from nearby Trelew, Lewis' Town in the native Welsh of the town's founders, to Buenos Aires. Further inland, it is possible to see small herds of grazing guanacos, a smaller and rarer member of the llama family, as well as wild foxes and wild rabbits.