Day 31 - Punta Arenas and Magdalena Island

[ South America 2008 ]

Up early this morning so we could get to the office of the tourism operator by 6:50am ready for our tour to Magdalena island.

They put us all into two minibuses and drove us to 30 minutes out of town to a small port where two large Zodiacs were waiting for us.

We put on our life jackets and boarded the larger of the two boats - ours had seating for about 20 - with captain standing at the wheel at the rear (and getting very wet) and a first mate hanging on at the side and getting equally wet. The boat had a canvas roof to keep spray off us - which was good, since it was quite windy.

Once we got out to more open water, the swell rose, eventually reaching over 2m … made it very interesting in the boat - quite a thrill ride … much more exciting than rides at the show or a theme park. We followed a zig-zag path (to avoid travelling side-on to the waves) out to Magdalena island and arrived after about 45 minutes.

Zodiac ride to Magdalena Island, near Punta Arenas, Chile

We disembarked on the island amongst literally thousands of Magellanic Penguins, and followed a roped off trail up to a lighthouse at the top - past many nests and young Penguins who didn’t seem overly fussed by our presence.

What you lookin’ at pal ? Magellanic Penguin - Magdalena Island, Chile

Does this make my backside look big ? Magellanic Penguin - Magdalena Island

Magellanic Penguins - Magdalena Island, Chile

There were a lot of Kelp Gulls and Skuas too hanging around and making lots of noise. Some of them had nests too - although I only saw juveniles, not chicks.

Magellanic Penguins - Magdalena Island, Chile

Doing the Snoopy dance - Magellanic Penguins - Magdalena Island, Chile

Magellanic Penguins - Magdalena Island, Chile

Apparently the penguin population is at least 50,000 birds, although some estimates we’ve heard put it at over three times that many.

Penguin verion of a Beatles Album cover - Magdalena Island, Chile

Aaaawoooooo, Beware the were-penguin !!

Skua chicks - Magdalena Island, Chile

Woooaah, I’m a working class pengiun - Magdalena Island, Chile

After an hour of wandering amongst the penguins, we boarded our Zodiacs again and headed further out to Marta Island, where a colony of sea lions lived. We watched them for a while - quite a few young sea lions visible, plus a couple of cranky males.