Penguin Day!
Kat and I arrived in Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile (and the occupied world) with only a few solid Must-See's, and this was one of them. We had both seen penguins close up in zoos before; why so giddy at the thought of seeing them in the wild? I'm not sure. Maybe because they are such an iconic creature, larger than life despite their modest height. Also, they live in Antarctica, a place that seemed to me as a child to be similar to Mars: real, but out of my reach.
Well, Patagonia is pretty dang close to Antarctica. And they have penguins.
We booked a tour to Isla Magdalena, the home of Monumento Natural Los Pingüinos and the nesting site of 60,000 pairs of Magellanic penguins. That's 60,000 pairs-- about 200,000 birds in total, when you count the young'ens. The tour consisted of a 2-hour ferry ride through the Strait of Magellan to the island, an hour to walk around and take pictures, and 2 hours back to Punta Arenas.
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| Our sweet ride |
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| The Blessed Virgin and a lifesaver: better known as "hedging your bets" |
On the way there, we stood outside the passenger cabin in the chilly wind until our fingers started to go numb, chatting with a friendly French tourist and enjoying the novelty of not-below-zero, having only arrived from sub-arctic Minnesota two days earlier. Soon enough the island appeared and grew on the horizon.
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| Isla Magdalena |
We pulled right up to shore and already, there were penguins. Right there off the starboard bow! And the port bow! So many penguins off all the bows!
We waited for the back gate of the ferry to lower so we could get closer. And we waited. And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Apparently, the ferry was experiencing technical difficulties, and for an hour we enjoyed the penguins from a distance.
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| Disapproving Ninja disapproves of mechanical failure. |
At last, the drawbridge lowered, and Penguin Day continued.
There were vertical penguins:
...and horizontal penguins.
Lots of awkward adolescent molting penguins...
...headless penguins...
...and oodles of penguins in holes.
Magellanic penguins mate for life, and they return to the same nest (a.k.a. hole in the ground) every year. Given the harsh climate in the Strait, the nests are fixer-uppers every time, but the little penguin couples persevere.
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| Penguin mates doing adorable penguin mate things |
The entire island was teeming with birds, some of them within touching distance from the roped-off path. The guide on the ferry had instructed us not to touch them, but it was sorely tempting. They were so, so close sometimes, and they seemed completely unconcerned by our presence. Or my alarming wind-hair.
The guide had also warned us that occasionally, there might be a penguin with "darkest intentions" that approaches us and tries to "trespass" our gloves or pants with its beak. Sometimes approximate translations are just fantastic.
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| How dark are this penguin's intentions? Darkest? |
The sun managed to show itself partway through our island time, and cruising sea birds accompanied us home, our own screeching, pooping honor guard. It was a good day.
I have now seen penguins in the wild. I'm not sure if that makes my world smaller,
or much, much bigger.
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