Punta Arenas, Chile

In the early hours of the morning, the ship approached Punta Arenas, located inside the Magellan Strait. 

Punta Arenas is the capital city of Chile’s southernmost region.  This is a nice town with a population of 130,000.  This area is known for tourism, cruises and scientific expeditions.  It is a base for Antarctic Expeditions.

In 1843, this area was used as a penal colony and a disciplinary posting for military personnel with “problematic” behavior.  Immigrants settled here in 1851.  From 1890 to 1940, it was one of the most important sheep raising regions in the country.

It is summer in the area, so the average temp is 50 degrees.  Rainfall is highest in April and May and the snowy season runs throughout the winter months of June to September.  This city is also known for its strong winds of up to 80 mph, which are strongest during the summer.

The day before, while on the ship, I noticed several passengers with their bags marked “Antarctica.”  One of the excursions was an Antarctica landing expedition.  They would fly to Antarctica for a full-day excursion to Villa Las Estrellas, a Chilean Antarctic settlement.  It was a 2.5 hour flight from Punta Arenas.  When they landed, they would go to one of the oldest and most important meteorological stations.  They would then hike to see wildlife preserves and glaciers.  After four hours, they would board the plane back to Punta Arenas.  This excursion sounded exciting, but it was pricey.  Also, I didn’t know if I could handle the weather.

There were other tours to Paine National Park, which is known for its soaring mountains, bright blue icebergs that cleave from glaciers and golden pampas (grasslands).  This entailed a forty minute flight to Puerto Natales and then a 2.5 hour drive to the park.

Several of the passengers chose to do a city tour.  Kenny and I selected a catamaran trip to Magdalena Island to observe a Magellanic penguin colony of approximately 25,000.  This is one of Chile’s largest and most important Magellanic penguin breeding sites.  These penguins are sometimes called Jackass penguin, and one of the largest of the warm-water penguin colonies. 

We began our morning with another beautiful rainbow to the north.  We boarded the catamaran with about 65 other passengers and 10 crew.  It was a nice ride to the island with dolphins following alongside most of the way to the island.  A whale was also spotted in the distance.

It was an exciting approach to the island, as you could see a great number of penguins along the shore and swimming in the ocean.  As we arrived, the tour guide asked us each to put on an orange life-jacket.  I thought it was odd, since we were already docking.  But we all obeyed and put them on.  I thought that with the orange life jackets on, the tour guide would be able to spot everyone on the island and to make sure that people stayed on the correct hiking path.

As we walked the plank from the boat to land, we noticed that the wind was beginning to pick up and the boat was swaying from side to side. 

The penguins were there to greet us. We walked to the official sign “Welcome To Monumento Natural Los Pinguinos”.  Lots of photos were taken.  We then proceeded on the trail to the top of the island where there was a lighthouse.  We were told not to touch the penguins and that they always had the “right of way”. 

I had on several layers of clothing as well as my hat and gloves.  I was comfortable, but I could tell the temperature was dropping and the wind was getting stronger.

As I walked along the trail, I could see many burrows of breeding pairs.  The colony was filled with penguins and baby chicks that were squawking and shrieking.  Every few steps I was stopping and taking photos of the penguins.  It was hard to believe I was in the middle of a colony of penguins. 

The trail up to the lighthouse was steep and rocky, but I made it.  As soon as I turned the corner at the top, the wind was gusting to at least 50 mph.  I had to hold on to a guide rope in order to stay on the trail.  As I began the descent, it felt as if the wind would blow me away.  I finally got down the hill and the wind decreased.

We spent about one hour on the island enjoying the penguins, seagulls and the ocean in front of us.

As I boarded the ferry, I noticed white caps out in the water.  I thought it might be a rough ride back, but did not yet realize how rough it would actually be.  We had barely pushed away from the island, when one passenger got seasick.  The domino effect began.  The seas were rough, with swells at about 6 feet.  Instead of our return taking 1.5 hours to Punta Arenas, it took 3 hours.  

Out of the 75 passenger/crew members, only 10 people didn’t get sick.  I am glad to say that once again, Kenny and I, were 2 of the ten that were fortunate enough not to get seasick.  I had never seen anything like it.  There were three passengers that became quite ill and could not make it off the ferry on their own when we finally docked.  The crew members said it was one of their worst rides.

Everybody was glad to be back to the dock, but we weren’t excited about boarding the ship, as we had tendered to the dock from the ship.  So that meant, we had to get back on the water in a small tender boat to get to the ship. 

Among the passengers waiting to get on the tender, I overheard that the Antarctic trip had been cancelled due to the stormy weather and ferries going out that afternoon to Magdalena Island had also been cancelled.  People on the Park excursion were able to get there and back.

We were glad to be back on the ship.  When I got in my cabin, I checked a brochure about the Magdalena Island excursion and read the part that said:  “Rough sea conditions can be experienced on this catamaran ride to Magdalena Island; passengers prone to seasickness should take this into consideration”.  Lesson learned.  Make sure you read everything about an excursion beforehand.  Everybody was just excited about seeing the penguins. No one gave any thought about getting seasick.