Punta Arenas

From Santiago, I flew to Punta Arenas, Chile, to visit the Magellanic penguins at the fame Isla Magdalena.

Punta Arenas gave me an "end of the world" feeling, even though it is nowhere near the tip of Chile or Argentina.

From Punta Arenas, I took a ferry for 2.5 hours to Isla Magdalena. The Magellanic penguins live in large colonies here and along the coast of Southern Argentina. They have pink bare skin on their faces that act as radiators and help prevent overheating when the conditions are hot. 

The Magellanic penguins nest underground in burrows that they dig with they beaks and feet. 
(Source: Antarctica cruising guide by Peter Carey and Craig Franklin)

Digging frenzy

This is the first time I have seen a penguin colony. If you enlarge the photograph below, almost every single white dot in the picture is a penguin. It was really exciting to see them squawk, wobble, dig, stare at us... I am sure you understand how it took me lot of discipline to be able to walk more than 10 steps without take any pictures. Ha!

Whisper whisper

The 5 amigos

Feeling left out

An inquisitive penguin checked out my shoes

My dear, our baby is hungry AGAIN!

Bliss

The other white dots on the island were mostly kelp gulls. The kelp gull is one of the most widespread gulls in the world and lays 2 to 3 eggs in shallow nests. (Source: Antarctica cruising guide by Peter Carey and Craig Franklin)

Kelp gull and its eggs

After staying on the island for 1 hour, we had to make our way back for yet another 2.5hours. As we headed out, I saw penguins swimming in the sea. Some swam with heads bobbing out of the water every now and then (like how we do our breast stroke), others swam with their bodies out of the water (like how we do our butterfly stroke, which later, I discovered was actually "porpoising") and rest swam leisurely like ducks. 

A beautiful sunset made a special appearance at 9pm, on an otherwise rainy day.