Punta Arenas
Due to time constraints (because of everything that happened with LAN canceling the Easter Island flights) we were forced to fly from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas the main gateway to the Chilean Patagonia region.
The city itself does not offer much other than beautiful scenery – and two special islands off its shore. The islands of Marta and Magdalena are unique for the very special residents that call these islands home. Magdalena is home to a huge seal colony as well as being the breeding ground for the Imperial Cormorant. But, the real star is Marta which is one of the best places on the planet to see penguins.
By the time we landed in Punta Arenas, we arrived around 8:00 pm at the hostel and was only going to spend one day in the town before heading further into Patagonia. So, two issues presented itself - one is it too late in the season to see the penguins and would we be able to book a trip for the next morning even though we were arriving so late. We knew of two companies that ran tours to the islands – one of them stopped sending their boats two weeks before we arrived in town – not a great sign. But, we got lucky (or so we thought) the other company was still running tours and they had space so we booked two spots and had another pre-sunrise wake up planned for the next day.
Looking back on how this played out, there was one question that escaped us in the excitement that our plans actually worked out so well. Why did the other company stop running tours? Well, it is currently Autumn in Patagonia and it is low season so we chalked it up to lack of customers for the boat trip. The other thought that we considered was that it is starting to get nippy outside – especially before the sun comes out or if it is cloudy. So maybe that is why the other company stopped running tours.
Well, I convinced Danna that even though it might be a little cold, if we wear every shirt that we own we will be fine – it is all about layering. But the temperature does not tell the whole story in Patagonia. The real wild card is the wind. We made our way to the tour office before daybreak and were bussed to the coast where a boat was waiting at the end of a long dock. The sun was just starting to peak out over the horizon as we boarded the vessel and head out to the open ocean. It did not take long before we could tell the wind was picking up as our boat fought through the waves.
We made it out to the first island, Marta, to visit the Monumental Natural Los Pinguinos. We docked along side a small barren, pock-marked island with nothing but a solitary lighthouse at the Island's highest point. And then the wind hit us. It was bitter cold and blowing... hard. We headed onto dry land and had to lean into the wind to make sure we did not get blown backwards. We then noticed that the pockmarks were actually burrows. The island has more than 100,000 Magellanic penguins that call it home and make nests all over the place. Today, we were lucky to see 15 birds. And then the answer as to why the other company stopped running tours – it was too cold for the penguins! They were almost all gone. But, the brave penguins that still hung around were very cute and it was still very cool to see wild penguins in their natural habitat.
After all of us found refuge in the lighthouse on the hill, we let the wind blow us back to shore (it was finally behind us instead of in our faces). We boarded the boat and head to Magdalena to view the other two species that shared this island as their home. The boat circled the island and we could get close enough to see, hear and smell the seal colony that lived on the beach. The sheer cliffs and plateau also worked perfectly as the nesting area for the Imperial Cormorant a beautiful sea bird that only nests in this area of the world.
I sat up on the bow taking pictures with my legs around a cleat to make sure I did not fall into the frigid waters. Danna did not wish to join me all the way on the front of the boat – remember it was really cold. So I sat there with the first mate (he took some pictures of me up there) and we just watched as big male seals fought for territory on a crowded beach and cormorants took off in massive flocks to survey the ocean for food. This is why we came to Patagonia – it is still very wild. What a great day to start our Patagonia adventure.
