March of the Penguins!

Punta Arenas has three options for viewing penguins, and since it was the farthest south we would be travelling we thought it was the best choice to go see some penguins - "penguinos" as they call them here.  The 12 hour day trip to Tierra Del Fuego to maybe see some King Penguins was out, so we had to choose between the drive up, cheaper, smaller Sena Otway option (about 6,000 penguin couples) and the more expensive boat ride across the Magellan Strait to bigger Isla Magdalena (50,000+ penguin couples in the height of the season).  In this case, my love of penguins won out over my love of staying on budget and bright and early we found ourselves waiting for a bus to take us out to the boat headed for Isla Magdalena.

The short description is that the penguin colony was amazing.  There were penguins everywhere, and they were just as cute in real life as they are on TV (or in stuffed animal form).  The trip started with a 45 minute boat ride out to the island, and we were blessed that morning with relatively smooth seas (not so much on the way back...).  Once on the island, you walk up to the lighthouse/penguin museum at the top and try not to burn out your camera battery before you get there.

Okay, not actually our boat to the island...

Ready for penguin time!

It was just as chilly as it looks

[Note from Chad: This is a colony of Magellanic penguins (appropriate, since the island is in the straits of Magellan).  They dig burrows in the gravelly/sandy ground, where they lay eggs.  One parent stays in the burrow to protect the eggs while the other goes out to fish during the day - they take turns fishing and protecting.  There aren't any land-based predators (or the relatively defenseless penguins would cease to exist), but seagulls and other birds steal unattended penguin eggs and chicks in an eye-blink.]

These guys are heading out to do some fishing and splashing around along the shore.

Hunkering down in the brisk wind.

There were penguins in their burrows all over the island.  Protecting their newly laid eggs also allows them to get out of the freezing wind.  Though they are really well insulated and don't seem to notice the wind much.

Mysterious partial spine found on the beach.  Sea lion?

The sea looks calm for our ride back, but was actually quite rough.  Which was fun for everyone in our boat except one lady, who looked like her head was going to explode.

Another feature of the tour is that they take you past an island with a sea lion colony on your way back.  The sea lions were huge, but watching them couldn't match the sheer awesomeness of seeing the penguins.  Especially when we never got closer than 200m from them

As if the day hadn't already yielded enough excitement, when we got back we went to visit a new craft brewery that opened in Punta Arenas in the last three months.  We tried their beer (the stout was good) and chatted with one of the owners.  A lovely little place, with lots of potential.

That evening we had a bbq at the hostel - a fun time with the owners, their family and staff, and the other guests, and the opportunity for Chad to work on his meat grilling skills.  [Note from Chad: I wasn't working on my skills, I was showcasing them...]

The Canadian guy is the only one who brought real asado meat (steak) to the BBQ, go figure... :-)

And finally, a couple puppy shots.  Four years ago our hostel owners adopted a stray they called Emma.  Emma appears to be a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.  We call her Chilean Allie (Allie being my parents' dog, also a Duck Toller).  This is the second Toller we've found abroad (the other being on a secluded island in Turkey).  Are Tollers taking over the world?

That was it for Punta Arenas.  Somehow the days there went by very quickly and we were off to Puerto Natales and Torres Del Paine before we knew it!