Tues 6th March- Well I arrived in Puntas Arenas earlier that the schedule said- I was there by 4pm. The flights were fine- we stopped of in 2 places to drop off and pick up passengers and changed planes in Santiago. The views from the plane were great- of the mountains and also many lakes. For the latter part of the journey clouds meant you couldn't see much but for a lot of the journey there were good views and I was glad I had a window seat! Skyairlines certainly feed you well, in a total of 7 hours flying time I was fed 3 times- breakfast, a light lunch type meal and a dinner! As much food or more even than I have ever been given on the long haul international flights I have done! As a result I wasn't really hungry in the evening and just ate the sandwiches I had made for my journey, thinking I wouldn't get fed much during the flights! I went to bed early as I was tired from getting up at 5am. The next day (Wednesday 7th) I booked to do the penguin trip to Isla Magdellena. It seemed expensive at 25,000 pesos (approx. £30) but it was worth it!

Penguins!

The ferry took 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to get back- you are allowed onto the island for 1 hour which is really good as it means that the penguins are not disturbed too much. Once on the island there is a path which visitors need to keep to but which also the penguins can cross- I managed to get a short video of 'penguins crossing' ! On the island the path led to a lighthouse but I didn't follow the crowd up there, instead I just wandered the path on my own, watching the penguins and taking pictures. It was quite an amazing sight and hard to capture on camera just how many there were, but they were everywhere, either sitting in their burrows, lying or standing outside their burrows or walking around. On the way there the guide told us some info about the penguins which were Magallenic penguins who come from the Falklands to this area in the summer to reproduce. On this island alone there are 69,000 couples. They come back every year due to the good breeding conditions and daylight hours (in summer it is light between 4.30am and 11pm!)

They arrive in September, the males first to make the burrows for the nests.The 1 or 2 eggs have a 20-25 day incubation period. The male and female penguins take turns to look after the baby/babies and fish. After 40 days the baby penguins start to learn how to dive and fish and by the first or second week of February they are ready to leave their parents and the island and start the journey home. Once they go they lose contact with their parents. In March the rest of the penguins leave, but they spend time before that gaining weight and molting their feathers. By the end of March there are no penguins left so I was lucky to arrive in March while they were still there. Magallenic penguins have a white chest and face with a black stripe on their chest. The juveniles get the stripe at 4 or 5 years old and then they are ready for reproduction. Baby penguins are grey and white but unfortunately I didn't see any of them as they had already left.

On the Thursday I didn't feel like doing the long bus journey south to Ushuaia - I think all the travelling of the past week had caught up on me. I had spent approx. 33 hours on buses and a day flying! I was really lacking energy and decided to spend the day doing some research for the next bit of my trip and made a few phone calls to catch up with people. I had a wander in the town and went down by the water but it was too windy to go walking there.