SPOTLIGHT ON PENGUINS

(or, What I Did for Holiday/Vacation)

Mythic, legendary, or (at the least) historic places, unspoiled nature, and special “critters”. These were the highlights of my Christmas+ vacation in Chile and Argentina .

Flying through Santiago de Chile, with a brief visit to Valparaiso , we arrived in Punta Arenas in the far south of Chile , part of Patagonia .  The “LBL” bus captured my whimsy in a tourist agency window, and the next day we traveled out to Otway sound to visit the first of several penguin breeding colonies. These are Magellanic Penguins, and, as shown, they nest in burrows in the ground at a small number of locations in the Straits of Magellan and the Beagle Channel.  Wildly popular at the SF Zoo, Steinhart Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, these little guys in black and white seem to have a secret path to our hearts. It was great fun to see them in the wild and appreciate the efforts to conserve their environment while still allowing us the pleasure of visiting them. The colony at Otway is a few thousand birds.

We traveled by bus from Punta Arenas , Chile , to Ushaia (pronounced OOO-shwye-a), Argentina . It was a long day, and along the road we saw sheep, cattle, guanaco (like llamas), and rhea (like ostriches). The car ferry across the Straits of Magellan was the demarcation between Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego and shortly down the road from there,  the border crossing between the two countries. Argentine Highway 3 is long and dusty, but we enjoyed the rolling steps, lake country and hilly descent down into Ushuaia.

Tierra del Fuego was long dubbed “Terra Incognita” and believed to be part of the Antarctic land mass.  The islands, channels and mountains of Tierra del Fuego are the setting for centuries of history and seagoing lore. 

We spent ten days in Ushuaia, the “southernmost City”,  kayaking and hiking in the Tierra Del Fuego national park,  riding the chair lift up to the Martial Glacier, or doing boat trips to islands in the Beagle Channel. Here we saw Steamer ducks, colonies of cormorants, more Magellanic plus Gentoo penguins, kelp geese, upland geese, terns, albatross, Southern Fur seals, Southern sea lions and many other wondrous creatures.

Not to mention centolla, king crab, which we saw in the small, local aquarium and on our dinner plates!

Our next adventure was a short flight to El Calafate (it is an edible bar berry), on the Patagonian steppes. El Calafate is growing rapidly as the tourist starting point for adventures into National Park Los Glacieres to see spectacular glaciers in Lago Argentina including the Perito Moreno, Upsalla and Spegazzini Glaciers.

Returning to Ushuaia, we embarked on a three day “adventure” cruise aboard the Mare Australis. This was “the icing on the cake”, a fabulous way to return to Punta Arenas from Ushuaia. The ship is small, 126 passengers, and the cruise was wonderful: elegant dinners, daily Zodiac adventures, lectures on the history and natural history of the area,   entertainment, and open bar. As a Chilean ship, the Mare Australis is permitted to travel in parts of Tierra del Fuego off limits to others. Our first adventure was a landing on Horn Island and a walk in rainy, windy weather up to the chapel, post office and memorial to lost seafarers. The weather was just what you would expect at Cape Horn and we hiked in foul weather gear and life jackets. Later that day we hiked at Wulaia Bay on Isla Navarino, quite a contrast, with sunshine and the view of a beautiful, sheltered bay which was important in the history and culture of the aboriginal tribes of the area and the Europeans who came to conquer or convert them to Christianity. The next day we sailed through the area observing the spectacular Darwin Cordillera and  entered the fjords of the Magellan straits and visited the Pluschow and Piloto Glaciers. The final morning of the cruise, we visited Magellanic penguins one last time at Isla Madgalena. The penguin colony here is well over one hundred thousand birds. We disembarked back at Punta Arenas and headed home the next day.

Reporting from the “End of the World” (El Fin del Mundo)

Lesta Nadel