Caleta Valdes, Peninsula Valdes
There is more to Caleta Valdés than southern elephants seals and magellanic penguins. Steppe fauna - tinamous, armadillos, cuis, tucu-tucus, gatos del pajonal, southern gray fox, maras, and guanacos - is regularly sighted here. Migratory birds, such as the two-banded plover, white-rumped sandpiper, red knot, Hudsonian Godwit and rufous-chested dotterel, nest here in spring. Caleta Valdés was once prime hunting and fishing grounds for the Tehuelche Indians. And while the bay has changed significantly in the past decade, it remains one of the most panoramic points in Peninsula Valdes.
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Tehuelche Indians
 The Tehuelche, a South American Indian tribe, inhabited the plains of Argentina from the Strait of Magellan to the Rio Negro for roughly 12,500 years. Initially a hunter gatherer community, the Tehuelche followed their food. They camped near mountains and lakes in summer and migrated to the coast in winter. The Tehuelche Indians gathered roots and seeds, collected oysters, and hunted guanacos and rheas, a flightless birds similar to an ostrich. With the arrival of the Spaniards in the 17th century the Tehuelche adopted the horse and started to trade. And they became famous without knowing it. European explorers impressed by the height and strength of the Tehuelche told tall tales about Giant Patagonians. |
