Punta Arenas

Today was a half travel day. We got to sleep in a bit, then had breakfast and were off to the bus station. We had a little slip up in that Neil our tour guide didn’t make it into one of the cabs, so he had to call another, and got to the bus station with only 5 minutes to spare. We were on the bus for 3 hours driving south from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas.

The bus ride was pretty uneventful, but after getting off the bus, we walked the 5 blocks to our hotel, to find that it wasn’t there. The hotel had subcontracted us out to another nearby hotel, but didn’t tell us that. So it was a bit of work to get things sorted out, but we did and we all got settled. Thus far, the only hiccough 10 days into the trip. We stopped next door to the hotel for tacos for lunch, then picked up groceries for tomorrow’s long bus ride.

Our only excursion in Punta Arenas was a trip to the Otway Sound Penguin Colony. It is getting late in the year for penguins (it was the first day of school after summer holidays today in Chile) but we were able to see some. Our first stop at the colony was the beach where there were 5 penguins out of the water, and after watching for about 10 minutes there were 17.

These are Magellanic Penguins that live on the Chilean mainland, and they were quite entertaining as they came ashore.

After watching on the beach, we walked inland to where they make their burrowing nests in the soft soil and vegetation.

It looked as if some were still in a state of gaining winter feathers, or were just a little unkempt.

The penguins are between 60 and 75cm tall weighing between 3 and 6 kg. It was amazing to be less than 5m away from them.

Yes, there is a penguin in the background between us.

At one point along the boardwalk there was a penguin that was just staying put right beneath the wooden slats. Most people didn’t see him, but another tourist pointed him out to me and I (breaking many rules I’m sure) reached my finger down and petted him.

He was soft and fluffy!

After we got back to town we walked to the Plaza del Armas, learning about Magellan and his expedition, and Jose Menendez and his building of business and enterprise in Patagonia. Then it was off to dinner prior to getting ready for our long travel day tomorrow to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world.