Enjoy a full day tour to Peninsula Valdes, leaving Puerto Madryn and driving north through the flat grey expanse of Patagonian steppes. At the entrance to the World Heritage national park you can look out over the immense waters of the Golfo San José to the left and the vast bay of the Golfo Nuevo to the right. At Caleta Valdés, witness a colony of sea elephants and the surrounding rocks and dry grasses are also the natural habitat for storks, guanaco deer, armadillos, Patagonian hares, foxes and eagles. Visit the small village of Puerto Piramides, built in the early 20th  century as a safe port at the end of the salt railway line and is now the gateway for whale-sighting cruises. The herds of southern right whales, which frequent the bay, tend to arrive in late August, although some are often sighted as early as June. Their dark shapes arcing through the waves are clearly visible from the shore, often blowing fountains of water into the sky.