Southbound again
We arrived back in Punta Arenas yesterday evening, after driving all the way back from Puerto Natales. The drive back was uneventful, and we both have a newfound appreciation for paved roads after the last couple of days. We checked into the hostel that Julie reserved for us, which was in a rambling old mansion with creaky floors and antique-looking furniture and skeleton keys for the doors. I was half convinced that I’d find someone’s crazy old aunt locked up in the attic.
After checking in, we tried knocking on Julie’s door but there was no answer, so we left her a note and walked up into the centre of the city to find some dinner, which ended up being at a great pub that had unbelievably giant sandwiches. Stuffed and tired, we headed back to the hostel to get some much-needed sleep.
Off to see some penguins
An early start, as my alarm clock went off at six in the morning. I had to keep telling myself that we were going to see penguins to avoid hitting it and going back to sleep like I did yesterday. Luckily, the day looked promisingly clear, so it was easier to wake up.
Isla Magdalena is the larger of the two main penguin colonies near Punta Arenas, with between 100,000 and 200,000 penguins at any given time. The smaller one, Seno Otway, only has a few thousand penguins and the chances of seeing them were rated as much smaller. So we booked the half-day trip to Isla Magdalena, which involved taking a small catamaran boat out on the Straits of Magellan for about an hour to reach the island. It was a fairly calm day, so the waves were only a few feet high; they can reach 15 or 20 feet easily on a choppier day.
Approaching the island, we could see tons of tiny dots, and as we got closer… sure enough, penguins! The entire small island was completely full of penguins. They were black and white, reached up to about knee height, and waddled around, digging into their burrows and standing in their monogamous pairs and occasionally flapping their wings and squawking. They came right up to us, and we could basically get within a couple of feet of the penguins, especially those swimming up from the water and crossing the pathway to get to the sand.
We walked up the path to the lighthouse at the top, where there was a small museum and monument to the penguins. I wonder how they all know to come to the island. Hmmmm. Anyway, I think I could’ve watched those penguins all day. They were so cute and cuddly. I want to adopt one!
Sea lions and dolphins
We spent about an hour on Isla Magdalena, penguin-watching and taking about a gazillion photos. Then, back on the boat to take a short ride to another island, where there was a colony of sea lions. Not quite as cute n’ cuddly as the penguins, and we could only see them from a distance from the boat. Probably a good thing, cause they stink. Anyway, I’ve seen sea lions up much closer in New Zealand.
At that point, the crew of the boat passed out life jackets and we were able to climb out to the side of the boat and sit along the edge. It seemed a bit precarious, especially with everyone sitting on one side… especially when the boat started to go. We all got splashed with a few waves, and Scott dropped a camera battery in the water while attempting to change his batteries on the fly.
Then, as we were sitting on the edge, we saw something swimming up to the boat. It turned out to be three beautiful black and white dolphins. They swam up in perfect unison and jumped right up close to us near the boat, and swam around a few times as if to say hello. It was pretty cool.
What is this, the U.N.?
In our little group of about twenty-odd people on the catamaran, there was a Quebecois couple from Montreal, with whom I spoke French, an Israeli couple with whom I spoke Hebrew, a Belgian guy who I spoke French to, a bunch of Americans who spoke English, and of course several Spanish-speaking locals and tourists. Trying to switch back and forth between four languages was making my head spin. At one point, the Chilean crew member confused matters even further by speaking to the Israeli tourists in fluent Hebrew. Yep, double-take time. Oddly, he thought it was strange that I spoke Hebrew, but not at all strange that he did. Gotta love travel sometimes.
Punta Arenas
After heading back to the city, we met up with Julie and proceeded to swap tales of the past few days. We found some lunch – more giant sandwiches at yet another restaurant – at least this time I had the good sense to share mine. And we wrapped up what was a great Patagonia-fest.
On the way to the airport, we stopped off briefly at the cemetery in Punta Arenas, which is a tourist attraction in its own right, full of monuments and elaborate mausoleums for the prominent families of the area, including the Jose Menendez family. We only had a few minutes so we didn’t get to see much, but it was pretty cool. Finally, headed towards the small airport, where we returned the rental car without incident despite the missing side mirror.
Goodbyes
It had been a really great week, festing with the eTrekkers. Jules and Scott were both heading back to Santiago for a day before flying home. I had a flight a couple of hours later up to Puerto Montt to begin the next leg of my trip. So we hugged and said our goodbyes. We will definitely have to do it again sometime.