In search of (more) penguins

The next stop after Ushuaia was Punta Arenas (Sandy Point). Punta Arenas is a bigger town than Ushuaia with over 100,000 residents. It is a 12 hour bus ride from Ushuaia that includes a ferry crossing (the bus gets on the ferry and all passengers unload during the crossing). We got into Punta Arenas about 8 pm and walked 20 minutes to our hostel with our bags because we didn’t have any Chilean pesos for a taxi.

We stayed at Hospedaje Costanera which is about a 15 minute walk from the center of town. The beds were comfy and Teresita who runs the place is adorable.

The reason we visited Punta Arenas was to visit Magdelena Island with its 70,000 pairs of penguins who migrate there every year from October to April to breed. Friday, the day after we arrived, we walked into town to book a trip for the following day. We found out that bad weather was expected the following day and no boats would be leaving. Two tourist offices later, we booked tickets for that afternoon.

We wandered around town and bought groceries and headed back to the tourist company, Solo Expediciones, office for the 4 pm boat only to find it was canceled due to high wind. They put us on the list for the Sunday morning boat and suggested we check the next afternoon to see if it would go.

We cooked paella rice and sausage in the hostel that night which was the best of our hostel meals so far. It was not as good as the seafood soup we’d had at Donde Mariano the night before- if you go to Punta Arenas, I recommend it!

Saturday Rich relaxed in the hostel and I visited the cemetary (they have great cemetaries here due to te respect for elders and ancestors), the seafood and artisan market (yup, same place), and the naval museum with its information about the Chilean vessel that rescued Shakelton and his men from Antarctica. I then confirmed the boat to Magdelena for Sunday and moved our bus to Puerto Natales to accommodate it.

After two days of waiting (and some heavy wind and rain) we finally headed to Magdelena Island on Sunday. The boat was a zodiac that seats 60 or so. We drove 30 minutes from Punta Arenas to the harbor and boarded. It is another 45 minutes on the boat to the island.

On the island you can walk a roped off trail to a lighthouse and see hundreds of penguins. They ask you to keep a distance of 3 feet- you are basically right next to them. We spent an hour on the island and took lots of pics.

Before heading back we went 20 minutes farther out to a smaller island with a large sea lion colony as well as penguins and thousands of cormorants. We didn’t disembark on this island but sat on top of the boat a short distance away watching the sea lions.

So, it took some time and effort but we did get to visit the penguin colony. Since then we’ve spent two days in Puerto Natales gearing up for Torres del Paine national park. Tomorrow we start the W Circuit- a 4-5 day hike.