Continental South America’s largest penguin nesting ground, Punta Tombo has a colony of about half a million Magellanic penguins, but the reserve attracts many other birds, notably king and rock cormorants, giant petrels, kelp gulls, flightless steamer ducks and black oystercatchers. You may also spot guanacos, maras (Patagonian hares), choiques (rheas) and other terrestrial creatures.
Wildlife Watching on the Paths
Some 3km of boardwalk trails take you past thousands of penguins, and depending on when you go, you may see penguins building nests (September and October), hatchlings (November) and parents feeding their crying young chicks (December to March), along with the emitting of donkey-like calls (used by males to assert dominance and later by mates to help locate one another). The site closes from May to August, when the penguins migrate north to the coasts of Uruguay and southern Brazil. Clifftop lookouts provide fine vantage points for watching the penguins entering and exiting the water, and blasting through the surf like black-and-white torpedos.
Exhibits at the Visitor Center
The site also contains a small museum touching on the region's geology, its ancient human presence and the iconic animal species of Patagonia. There's lots of insight into the nature reserve's star attraction, the Magellanic penguin, from its morphology and feather structure to mating and migration routes. You can see skeletal remains of prehistoric penguin relatives (the oldest nearly 25 million years old), and models of other animals commonly seen in Patagonia. There's also a decent cafe that serves coffee, sandwiches and lunch plates.