Adventures in South America: Isla Magdalena, Chile

Early this morning we caught an Uber from our hostel and headed down to the Punta Arena port. Ships to Antarctica leave from here, but our destination was Isla Magdalena, the home of tens of thousands of Magellanic penguins!

Along with a couple of dozen other tourists, we took the catamaran on the left out to the island in the Strait of Magellan.

Shortly after leaving port, humpback whales were swimming alongside, which was pretty exciting! 

After about 90 minutes of comfortable sailing, we got close to Isla Magdalena.

The island is entirely a natural monument dedicated to the penguins (but a lot of other birds appreciate it too!).

Tourists can only spend one hour on the island, and you can walk a roped-in trail that loops around from the dock. There are penguins all over--in the water, on the beach, roosting in their burrows, and picking grass to add to their nests. They come here to breed and stay for roughly half the year, beginning to arrive in the spring and leaving in early autumn. In November there are no babies yet, but eggs have been laid. I am not sure what more to say, except check out all the penguins!

Here is some of the video I was able to take:

The tour is expensive ($100 USD) but for me it was totally worth it and one my initial thoughts as we reboarded the boat to return was "I want to do it again"!