*For non British readers the title is a reference to adverts for a chocolate biscuit.
By now we were quite familiar with how bus stations and buses worked and we had an easy morning's journey to Punta Arenas. It is a town with a large port used by cruise ships and Antarctic expeditions. The main square had a variety of architectural styles as a result of the influx of Europeans in the late 1800s following the gold rush and sheep farming boom.
Some of the more interesting buildings around the square
Our first task on arrival (once we had found where we were staying) was to try and book a trip for the next day to Magdalena Island which is home to over 100,000 penguins. The penguins arrive in December to mate and lay their eggs and stay for a few months until the adolescent penguins have shed their fluffy feathers. We had been contemplating a trip to see penguins at some stage, but I had just read The Penguin Lessons (a lovely non-fiction book about a penguin rescued by an English school teacher working in Buenos Aires in the 1970s, I recommend it to anyone looking for an easy read) and had developed a new found interest in penguins! Mission accomplished we headed to the supermarket to buy our supplies for the next couple of days.
During our time in Argentina we'd enjoyed drinking beer from Austral, a Punta Arenas brewery dating back to 1896, and we had organised a tour for the next day. With a day of penguins and beer to look forward to we had a quiet afternoon doing chores (laundry), trip admin and playing yahtzee.
The next day we were up early and at our designated collection point for 6.30am with about 40 other tourists. We were driven to a small dock just outside of Punta Arenas. Most of the drive was along a road adjacent to the water and we caught a brief glimpse of two dolphins swimming along the shore line. We all filed into a yellow boat that was deceptively spacious inside. We were lucky that, for Patagonia, there wasn't much wind and the water was quite calm.
On arrival to the small island there were penguins everywhere! I was surprised by how noisy they were! They look directly up to the sky, puff their chests out and honk veraciously! As tourists we had a circular path roped out around the island and had been warned to stay at least a metre away from the penguins. The penguins ignored the tourists and walked across the path as they pleased. We could have spent hours watching the penguins interact with each other, waddle around the island, climb in and out of their burrows and ducking and diving in the waves.
There were penguins everywhere!
We had about an hour on the island and then everyone got back on board the boat. The sea was deemed calm enough by the captain to head to a nearby island which housed a number of sea lions. Unfortunately we didn't get as close to this islands, we could just see the sea lions by sitting on top of the boat. I was surprised by how big the sea lions were. It was then time for the return journey where most passengers (including us) had a quick nap as a result of the early start and the sea air.
After a quick trip back to our apartment for lunch we were off to the brewery, but then disaster struck! The tour was cancelled due to unplanned repair work. A little disheartened we walked back into town to find an establishment selling Austral on tap. We finally found a locals bar almost opposite our apartment serving Austral's El Calafate on tap and we managed to use up some of our Chilean Peso (Punta Arenas would be our last Chilean stop) sampling a pint or two!
-Jess
No comments:
Post a Comment