Date of Entry: March 14th 2016
Date of Writing: April 28th, Palermo Art Factory Hostel, Buenos Aires, Argentina
King Penguins, I was lucky enough to see four of them back in Ushuaia before heading to Antarctica, but here in Punta Arenas I find out that there’s a tour to a king Penguin park with mainland South America’s only King penguin colony, a new one with between 100-200 penguins, on the Chilean side of Tierra Del Fuego. the rest of the king penguins of this world live out on the Falklands (Malvinas) and South Georgia Islands. there’s hundreds of thousands there and one day I certainly dream of visiting but for now this will have to do.
I book the tour which costs 48000 CLP (96 CAD) plus a 12000 CLP (24 CAD) entry fee to the actual king penguin park through the lovely staff at Hostel 53 Sur who are kind enough to wake up early on the day to make me and some other guests joining me on the tour breakfast. This tour is something of a marathon starting between 6 and 7 am and we don’t expect to be back until at least 9 pm.
We’re greeted warmly by Jonny our long haired Uruguayan guide who is just downright awesome and quickly enough we pile into a mini bus. I take a seat beside Valentina a German/French girl who turns out to be pretty awesome and very much fun to spend this epic tour with.
The first step of the tour is to pick everyone up, which mercifully doesn’t take that long and we get to the first ferry of the day on time, a roughly 2 hour journey from the town of Punta Arenas to the smaller settlement of Porvenir, the biggest outpost on the Chilean side of Tierra Del Fuego. The ferry is huge and comfortable with lots of cushioned seats inside a heated area around a cafeteria, but as we food onto the ferry on foot I figure forget that and head outside to the observation decks fast as I can.
My choice to stay outside despite the cold temperatures, biting winds, and fact that I’m wearing shorts and lack most elements of warm clothing since I only borrowed most of the stuff for Antarctica, is very quickly rewarded as I watch the waters carefully and find some magellenic penguins swimming as well as lots of amazing Albatross’ resting in the calm-ish waters and taking off as our massive ferry approaches.
As the time passes more and more people retreat inside but I’m out there dancing,singing and listening to music until the bitter end, but of course that’s not all. I’m also watching for dolphins, as they are quite common at the end of this ride and my patience and perseverance pays off. As everyone is slowly heading down to the vehicles to drive out a huge pod of dolphins appear jumping this way and that in the water all around the ferry. I love dolphins and it takes Jonny (Juan) calling me quite persistently to drag me off the deck and back into the minibus.
As we drive out into the town of Porvenir there’s some confusion as we’re missing a passenger but some believe he was just taking the bus to Porvenir anyway, luckily we stop and find him as he wants the full tour and probably would not have been too pleased if we’d driven away.
The next two stops blend into one as we pull up to a small park on the edge of town full of wooden statues of the Tierra Del Fuego People, who are in many ways responsible for the same of the land, since europeans arriving saw the smoke from countless small groups of these physically imposing first people and named the island Land of Fire. We stop here for a few minutes and learn some more about the history of these people and how the last pure blooded one has only just recently died (Another native people wiped out by the west-check.).
We then move on to the museum of Tierra del Fuego in the heart of a city with a reconstructed observatory outside built by one crazy dedicated man long ago. The museum is certainly interesting but in the end has too wide an array of information for me to process it all and such a short visit, and I’ll be honest my mind is already on the prospect of penguins. Still the museum does delve more into the arrival of Europeans in Patagonia and is certainly worth the time if you find yourself in Porvenir Chile.
From the museum we head through Porvenir stopping at a little bakery for our last bathroom and food option for a while. I grab two beef filled empanadas and regret the second one having partially forgotten that one chilean empanada is 4 or 5 times the size of one Argentinean one. Oops! They’re also super messy to eat on the bumpy road out of Porvenir.
The next stop is an exciting one for me as I haven’t seen wild flamingoes since the last time I was in the incredible Uyuni Salt Flats (a definite highlight of South America so much so that I did the tour three separate times). We pull over to the side of the road and watch these majestic pink birds who remain frustratingly distant but still close enough to enjoy observing alongside some swans who clearly think they’re flamingoes. As we snap some photos a group of horse behind them breaks into a brief and unexplained gallop, making for even cooler photos.
The stop is all too brief for me but I understand why Juan, our charming and very honest tour guide herds us back into the minibus, he works very long hours since this 15-17 hour marathon tour isn’t even the longest one his company offers (Full day Torres Del Paine from Punta Arenas). Naturally he doesn’t want us lagging behind schedule too much, though with Vaentina and I he really is fighting a losing battle to keep the group on schedule.
The further we get from Porvenir the more alone we become though I will say the legends of terrible roads on this tour spread by trip advisor seem to me to be greatly exaggerated. Yes there are long stretches of unpaved roads, but they are very smooth and even for unpaved roads and better than some paved roads I’ve been on. Certainly not a reason to skip this epic tour if you can afford the price tag. Especially since from the road are so many amazing views of the rugged Patagonian landscapes. Of course the road is not without it’s problems and we pull to a stop in front of a few thousand sheep on the road being herded firmly by four Patagonian men on horseback. They’re too far south to be called Gaucho’s but they sure look like it, and how they work together with there dogs and horses to get this massive amount of sheep is pretty damn impressive. (Video Coming Soon)
Once the road is clear we motor on through continuing past some distant and isolated bays to the Parque Pinguino Rey (King Penguin Park) which is located on a bas so isolated it is literally called useless bay (bahia inutil). As we get a run down on behaviour in the park and such from Jonny a fox shows up outside the van and it becomes hard to sit and listen to the rules (which are important and should be followed). Eventually the talk is done and I pop out of the van and grab some pictures of the curious fox who confirms my general belief that Foxes are awesome. Once it darts off into the southern scrubland I turn my attention to the penguin park,heading in with Valentina and paying the 12,000 CLP entry fee before hurriedly but near-silently heading towards the coastline.
The penguins today have split into two main groups and we are very very lucky as both groups are surprisingly close to the trail endings. This is a new colony (the first on the South American mainland) and to keep it healthy and growing this private park has strict rules and trails. On one hand it can suck if the penguins happen to be far away, but in the big picture it’s definitely a good thing, as the colony started with less than 30 penguins about 7 years ago. But enough history and important information and everything else because AAAAAHHHHHHHH King Penguins!!!
The first group is in some grassy land alongside a narrow inlet which cuts through the beach to our right. We head there first and watched in open jawed awe as these animals interact with each other because as amazing as the pictures are, the soundscape alone is legendary. And watching the parents peck at their babies with their quite sharp looking beaks is incredible too. Already, in the first moments of seeing them, this whole tour has become well worth it.
We spend a good chunk of time with the first group but eventually the two of us, smiles plastered across our faces, head along the other branch of the trail closer to the beach where the same inlet widens providing a sort of swimming pool for this incredible birds and their sunburst necks. I saw a lot of penguins in Antarctica, and while here I can’t get as close, I’m just as blown away. Maybe even more so. Seriously King Penguins are awesome and if you are in Punta Arenas take this tour. For me it’s better than Isla Magdellena though both are absolutely worth doing.
We’re only supposed to have about an hour with the penguins but Juan likes our group and so it stretches to closer to two hours with me always begging for more. And after watching them frolicking in and out of the waters on the beach for a good long time I head back to the ones in the grass who are certainly closer to the barriers. And as I head back over there I realize one brave penguin has crossed the channel of water and is now mere meters away. Watching this group again I also catch some actual baby feeding among other magical natural scenes. The time flies by all too fast.
As I stand watching these ridiculous birds just living day to day life the one penguin on our side of the water wanders still closer, allowing for some close up shots including the eyes of the king penguins, which are startlingly reptilian in my estimation. I take way too many pictures and videos which will hopefully be added soon.
Eventually we are forced to leave the incredible penguin park behind and I actually buy a souvenir t-shirt (8000 CLP 16 CAD) Only in part because I need to buy a shirt and mostly because the day has been just that awesome so far. From the park we head back onto the well maintained gravel roads of Tierra del Fuego cutting across the spartan landscapes and passing several guanacos (Llama cousins.)
Our next stop is the town of Cerro Sombrero a strange oil town with a fascinating history of strange settlements made there for the oil and lots of alcohol and drug problems. For this reason oil companies eventually built a big cinema and huge recreational centre including botanical gardens for everyone to enjoy, helping to deal with the problems of alcoholism and drugs in the community where only recently have families of the workers started to live. The people here are super friendly and get the gardens opened for us while I’m more focused on watching a soccer game, which then morphs into a tennis game making me incredibly jealous. I can’t describe how much I miss playing Tennis.
At this point my camera dies and I have to use my broken camera battery by pushing it gently in with my thumb anytime I want a photo but such is my dedication to the blog. After more hours on the road we get to the ferry which I took in my last post again just as the sun is setting around 8:30 pm and climb on board amazed by the bursting and alive mosaic of oranges in the sky. Valentina certainly seems to be enjoying it by my close up, and in the end on the ferry I pull out the paint me jack for the first time of the day. Valentina is laughing but Juan mocks horror and says he wont be allowed to use this ferry ever again if I keep it up. He’s a funny sarcastic guy though and I’m pretty sure he’s just joking. He’s also one of the best tour guides I’ve had in three years of travel, friendly, willing to give you a little shit, but also super knowledgable about everything vaguely related to the tour.
As we drive back the last two hours to Punta Arenas we make two stops, one to see a big shipwreck on the beach in the very much dying light and one at a street sign. The Shipwreck is eery and beautiful as the stars come out above us and I try to get some photos in low light. The street sign is likely confusing if you’re not Chilean. Punta Del Cerro is basically an equivalent of like go to hell or go F**k yourself. It’s what you might say to a boyfriend or girlfriend if you caught them cheating but it’s also a real place here. Because of this Chileans love to get their picture here, just so that if anyone tells them to go to Punta del Cerro they can whip out the picture and be like “Boom, i’ve already been there.”
It’s a strange way to end the tour undoubtedly but an awesome one. It’s 11 pm by the time we get back to Punta Arenas and the lovely hostel 53 sur, but every second of this epic marathon tour has been worth it. I say goodbye to Valentina and all the other wonderful people on the tour and head to bed excited for another delicious pancake breakfast tomorrow.
I can’t stress this enough, if you’re in Punta Arenas stay at Hostel 53 Sur and book the king penguin tour and hope that Juan (Jonny) is your guide.
