Tuesday Jan 17, 2023
Hi folks! Well the word of the day today was PENGUINS! We did a cool excursion over to two islands off the coast of the town of Punta Arenas, Chile. The two islands were Magdalena, which had thousands of penguins on it, and Marta which had thousands of sea lions on it.
For Magdalena Island we took a boat across the Strait of Magellan for about 40 mins and got to go on the island and walk around with all the Magellanic penguins. There was a roped off walking trail on the island that took about an hour to walk around. We were within a few feet of all these penguins many of which were in their little nests which were just holes in the ground. Most of the baby penguins were born about a month ago and still had a peach fuzz type hair still on them. They were so cute! If the wifi here was better I’d post hundreds of pics but can only share a few.
Then for Marta Island we couldn’t go on the island but the boat was able to drive up pretty close for us to get pictures. They explained that the males were the bigger and darker ones and the females were more light brown. They also said the males each have about 20 females and are constantly fighting the other males to protect their females. We saw and heard lots of fights!
In the evening we had a nice dinner, went to see the comedy act and listened to the piano players. This is our last port in Chile. We’ve spent 11 days in Chile and really enjoyed it. Our next stop is Ushuaia, Argentina which is the furthest southern inhabited city in the world. Before we get there we’ll get to cruise past Glacier Alley which has the six glaciers I mentioned yesterday. We also have an excursion to see some amazing scenery.
Sending this note out now and will send pics later. Hope everyone’s having a good week so far!
The Wandering Italian 