South America - part 12 Punta Arenas & Penguins!

Saturday 24th January. Punta Arenas

Bucket list - penguins check, condors check

 

Our room service breakfast arrived 15mins early at 5.45 (they had a lot of orders and rather than be late – brought it early!) We were to meet the rest of the group at 7.15 for our private tour to the Otway Sound Penguin Colony.

 

Punta Arenas was originally a berthing port but a boat had damaged the pier so we had to tender ashore. Our tour organiser got tender tickets for all of us for the first group but we still had to wait until the ship tours had gone. About 8.45 our boat numbers were called and we went down to A deck to board. The water was a little choppy but the journey only took about 10 mins. We had to put our bags through security before going out front where the guide was waiting for us.

 

It was a bit squashed in the minibus for a 45 min drive down the motorway and another 45 mins down a dirt track. The landscape was flat and scrubby with large vistas either side.

 

 

On the way we stopped to photograph llamas and I managed to spot five condors circling high overhead - my first sighting of this iconic Andean bird. I also spotted a Caracara by the roadside with others circling above. These are large birds of prey.

Once at the gate to the colony it was another 3/4 mile walk down a gravel path and boardwalk.

  

As we progressed through the scrub interspersed with alpine-type flowers, little black and white heads popped up from their burrows. Soon Magellanic penguins were everywhere; in the scrub, marching in columns down to the beach, sometimes only heads visible as they had worn down their well-used tracks. There was a hide where we could take photos of them on the beach itself, diving down into the sea or coming out and preening on the pebbles amidst piles of seaweed and storm-driven driftwood.

 

 

One launched into an Ecstatic Display, as mentioned in one of our lectures by Chris Wilson.

After an hour we tore ourselves away and walked back to the bus for the journey back, taking a short detour past a maritime museum.

 

 

We opted to be dropped off in the main square and wandered back slowly via a craft market where I bought a locally-made lapis and silver penguin pendant and a group of three penguins on an iceflow, carved out of local stone and quartz.

I was gasping for a drink so after an unsuccessful attempt to get free wifi in the small gift shop at the tender drop-off point, I went back to the ship. The water was noticeably choppier and we slammed into the waves. As I was getting up to disembark, the boat slammed into the pontoon and I fell back into my seat much to the annoyance of the guy next to me who told me to get off or let him pass! Back on Zaandam, still a bit shaky from the tendering, I undressed and showered and changed. My friend arrived later as she had stayed ashore longer, and we went up to team trivia where we came second. went in for an early dinner so we could return to the deck for for sailaway. Then to the show and bed as another early start tomorrow for the Sarmiento Canal transit. I think I am going to need a holiday after this cruise!!