Our last stop in Chile was Punta Arenas, a three hour drive from Puerto Natales. This town is located in the Magallanes region, where the Magallanes detroit stretiching over 611km is th elongest one seperating and thus connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific one. This whole piece of land used to the ice layer 150 million of years ago, and got invaded by water when the sea level rose about 10 000 years ago. 10 years ago the last part of land connecting Patagonia to the Tierra del Fuego broke. The only way to reach it now is thanks to a boat connecting both lands.
The town doesn't not have much to offer: walking around the main attractions are the main square, the harbour and it's wildlife, the cemetery and a park outside of town. Yet Punta Arenas is visited by many tourists for two reasons: it's a point of departure for Ushuaia, and about 60 nautical miles from the coast the Isla Magdalena holds about 58.000 penguins. A tour is organised from town to go and visit the island and have the pleasure to see penguins in their natural environment! So adorable!! |
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This island is a national protected monument with a national historic monument, the lighthouse, and holds 58.000 penguins over 85 hectares and on which the lighthouse.
The penguins coming to this island are the Magallanic penguins, a white and black (in their upper part) race. The male is bigger than the female, weights about 4.5kg and has a height of about 57cm. They can live up to 25 years and feed from fishes mainly anchovies and sardines.
These penguins travel 4'000km from the south of Brazil to this island seeking for sunlight. Indeed they need as much sunlight as possible to reproduce and here the sun rises at 04:30 and gets down at 22:00-23:00. The male arrives first around mid September to spot out the perfect location to set their nest, which he will dig deep of about 1 meter into the ground - a hole to protect them from the sun - and then decorate with what pleases him on the island. After 15 days the female arrives. Once a couple is made they start to reproduce. Each couple will procreate two eggs which will take about 40 days to come to terms. Once the chicks are born one penguin take care of them while the other one goes fishing. After a couple of months, when the chicks are old enough, they take them to the sea to teach them how to swim, fish and survive. Readiness of a penguin to leave a place for another one after reproduction period is noted by the feather change, which is of course quicker for the chicks than the adults. That's why they are the first ones to leave the island around early February back to Brazil and will lose all contact with their parents afterwards. The last ones to leave the island are the adults as they take more time to change their feather and recover from the reproduction period. The journey back to Brazil lasts about two months.
Sadly a nice story never goes without a villain! The royal cormorants, a type of birds we can see everywhere in Punta arenas, feed of fishes of courses but also of seagulls and penguins. They grab the seagull, pull them 15m high and throw them back to the ground before further breaking their skull with their beak. They also stack the penguins who sadly have less self defence options than the seagulls and they cannot fly. Mainly penguins die of cormorants attacks and most of the males actually prefer to die of hunger in their holes than taking the risk of being attacked by a cormorant. And sometimes, when a penguin loses a friend, it's probable it will never leave the island to stay by its side.
The penguins coming to this island are the Magallanic penguins, a white and black (in their upper part) race. The male is bigger than the female, weights about 4.5kg and has a height of about 57cm. They can live up to 25 years and feed from fishes mainly anchovies and sardines.
These penguins travel 4'000km from the south of Brazil to this island seeking for sunlight. Indeed they need as much sunlight as possible to reproduce and here the sun rises at 04:30 and gets down at 22:00-23:00. The male arrives first around mid September to spot out the perfect location to set their nest, which he will dig deep of about 1 meter into the ground - a hole to protect them from the sun - and then decorate with what pleases him on the island. After 15 days the female arrives. Once a couple is made they start to reproduce. Each couple will procreate two eggs which will take about 40 days to come to terms. Once the chicks are born one penguin take care of them while the other one goes fishing. After a couple of months, when the chicks are old enough, they take them to the sea to teach them how to swim, fish and survive. Readiness of a penguin to leave a place for another one after reproduction period is noted by the feather change, which is of course quicker for the chicks than the adults. That's why they are the first ones to leave the island around early February back to Brazil and will lose all contact with their parents afterwards. The last ones to leave the island are the adults as they take more time to change their feather and recover from the reproduction period. The journey back to Brazil lasts about two months.
Sadly a nice story never goes without a villain! The royal cormorants, a type of birds we can see everywhere in Punta arenas, feed of fishes of courses but also of seagulls and penguins. They grab the seagull, pull them 15m high and throw them back to the ground before further breaking their skull with their beak. They also stack the penguins who sadly have less self defence options than the seagulls and they cannot fly. Mainly penguins die of cormorants attacks and most of the males actually prefer to die of hunger in their holes than taking the risk of being attacked by a cormorant. And sometimes, when a penguin loses a friend, it's probable it will never leave the island to stay by its side.
Transport: a 3h bus ride from Puerto Natales for a cost of CLP 5-7'000 (7.5-10€) depending on the company.
Accommodation: we were so nicely hosted by Rodrigo thanks to Couchsurfing.
F&B: we privileged cheap food in order to counterbalance the cost of the penguin tour. A total expenditure of about CLP 25'000 (36€) for a full lunch, two dinners (pizzas and a very good Pichanga @ El Rustico) and sandwiches and snacks for the tour and the bus ride the next day.
Activities: the penguin tour costs CLP 40'000 (60€) with Comapa. The boat (2hrs ride each way to the island) isn't very practical to enjoy the view. Yet we were very luck because even d we were out of season we got to see whales and dolphins of Patagonia (which are white and black) - and evens a group of penguins swimming!
Accommodation: we were so nicely hosted by Rodrigo thanks to Couchsurfing.
F&B: we privileged cheap food in order to counterbalance the cost of the penguin tour. A total expenditure of about CLP 25'000 (36€) for a full lunch, two dinners (pizzas and a very good Pichanga @ El Rustico) and sandwiches and snacks for the tour and the bus ride the next day.
Activities: the penguin tour costs CLP 40'000 (60€) with Comapa. The boat (2hrs ride each way to the island) isn't very practical to enjoy the view. Yet we were very luck because even d we were out of season we got to see whales and dolphins of Patagonia (which are white and black) - and evens a group of penguins swimming!