Friday 30th January
Punta Arenas, Chile
Since leaving Montivideo we have been sailing south and on Tuesday we were lucky enough to see some whales from our cabin balcony. We think they were humpback whales. Yesterday afternoon we took on a Chilean pilot and we entered the Magellan Straits. The waters in the Straits are very calm and the ship sailed slowly along until we came to Punta Arenas. We anchored there late in the evening. Today the ship's small tender boats took us to shore. I went on a trip to the Otway Sound where there is a colony of penguins. Russ didn't want to go so he spent the morning in town. To get to the sound I travelled through a large nature reserve and from the coach window saw some falcons, wild geese with their babies and a hare. The penguins are Magellan penguins and this is there natural habitat. The area is protected and you had to stay on the path that took you through their breeding ground down to a viewing platform by the beach. As I walked down two penguins hopped down onto the path in front of me. I saw lots of penguins walking from their burrows down to the beach. They look very funny as they walk along. From the viewing platform you can see the majority of the colony most were standing along the beach but some were having a lovely time swimming and splashing in the water. I could only see a few young penguin with their downy feathers. They were quite large and very soon their feathers will change. The penguins leave the colony in March. We had been expecting the weather to be cold this far south even though it is summer but we have been very fortunate today as the sun has been out quite a bit and it has been warm. After lunch Russ and I went for a walk around town. In the main square is a statue of Ferdinand Magellan with two Indians - it is a custom to rub the big toe of one of the Indians to ensure you return to Punta Arenas! We then walked to the cemetery which has very ornate tombs. Before we returned to the ship we bought a few bottles of Chilean wine to sample on board. We opened a bottle later on as we sailed away from Punta Arenas, it was lovely wine. For the rest of the evening we sailed through the rest of the Straits passing some snow topped mountains until we reached the Pacific in the early hours of the morning.