February 14, 2023

Today we arrived at our last port in Chile. The days are so much longer here, it is light until after 10 PM. Here is a picture of the sunrise, just beautiful as so many of them are.

Our destination today was to the Magdalena Island and Penguin Reserve. I have been so excited to see these birds so was really looking forward to the excursion. We had a short bus ride to a different pier than the one we were docked at. We heard there would be 6 ships here today. One was the Oceania Marina.

We boarded a large catamaran which, thank goodness, had a lot of inside seating. We all got a penguin backpack with a sandwich and lots of snacks in it. The trip to the island took about 90 minutes and was pretty smooth, although we were advised that weather might be rough. Some whales were spotted but not that close to the boat.

The weather was not bad when we left the port, sunny skies but pretty cool, in the 40s. According to the guides, this is what it is like every day. When we got to the island, the winds were fierce and it rained off and on.

I was not disappointed by the penguin colony. The chicks have left the island and the adults are molting, they were mostly just standing around and walking slowly. Of course, I got MANY pictures and Norm got some good ones too so I will share some of them. These penguins all leave the island in March – they go to north of Peru on the Pacific side and just north of Brazil on the Atlantic side. They return in September. We hiked up to the lighthouse and observed many sea birds along the way. Our guides seemed like very young people but they were well informed. During the trip to the island, they came around to every group with maps and explanations of what we were going to see as well as the rules of the island regarding the penguins. We had to stay on the path and not approach the penguins. None came up to us. When we were in Antarctica, they came right up to us and seemed curious.

We were also fortunate to see an upland goose.

When we had spent an hour on the island, we were ready to board the catamaran for the trip back. Good thing, we were very cold and wet but we enjoyed the trip so much. When we returned to the pier it was hailing, and I guess that is all in a day’s weather here in southern Chile.

We will see many types of penguins in the next few days. These were the Magellanic penguins. So you will see lots more penguin pictures. I love the little fellows.

Tomorrow we have our first port in Argentina, Ushuaia.