Playa Escondita sushi

The next morning we made it to Punto Tombo – yet another pinguineria. The differences between this one and Cabo Dos Bahias were enormous. There were tourists and tour buses.  This place even had parking attendants (although it wasn’t crowded) and we were immediately directed to the ticket window. It was a bit pricey, but considering Dos Bahias was free (for us) it wasn’t a big deal. Then we were ushered into a modern museum where we saw life-sized replicas of all the fish and fowl in the area. Finally, we were allowed to drive about 1 km closer to the beach and enter the penguin area.

While Dos Cabos had about 9,000 pairs, Punto Tombo has 200,000 pairs of penguins. There were penguin holes as far as the eye could see. And downy white penguin feathers all over the ground. The grounds were enormous, but most of the penguins seemed to be missing. Also, there was no access to the sea where the penguins were swimming.

A few birds did meander through the walking trail, though. It would have been amazing, had we not been so close at Cabo Dos Bahias. I think we were all a bit disappointed on this stop. But still, PENGUINS!

A few hours north, and we discovered yet another hidden gem of a beach, Playa Escondita. We were the only ones there, so we popped the top and got comfortable. The guys tried their hand at fishing. Simon was the lucky one today.

Later, 3 commercial fisherman came back into the bay. We were hungry and Simon’s fish wouldn’t feed all of us, so we bought 2 sea bass and a huge salmon right out of the boat. So fresh, there was only one way to prepare it… sushi!

Who says 5 people can’t make sushi in a VW bus?

By the time we got up the next morning, we realized that this little gem wasn’t so secret. It was Saturday morning, and the beach was lined with local fishermen casting into the surf. Since it was a bit cold and windy, we decided we had enjoyed this place more on our own, and packed up.