Jaunted

Whatever it may be--their cute strut, their squeals or their cuddling skills, penguins just make everyone feel good. So it was no surprise that we were quite excited to see these huggable birds up close and personal during our recent trip to Isla Magdalena National Park.

With excitement in the air, we boarded a small dainty motorboat at the pier and were told by the captain that the conditions were not bad, but not good. Red flag #1. While the ride was rocky and we had to find an alternative place to dock our boat, we made it through without any “accidents”.

Isla Magdalena is an island off the straits of the Magellan (our new vintage explorer crush). 70,000 penguin couples inhabit the island, which equals to a penguin population of around 150,000. That’s more than human population of Punta Arenas.

Suited up in our North Face jacket, we were ready to take on the windy 30-degree weather and hang out with penguins for an hour and a half. Wait a second? Is it possible to watch penguins for that long? I mean the documentary is longer than that, but it’s edited, narrated by warm voice of Morgan Freeman and we got to watch it in the comfort of our home sweet home. Well, with the boat having left the shore we had a few missions ahead of us:

1) Try to touch or hold a penguin
2) Take a picture touching or holding a penguin
3) Walk up the path to the lighthouse

We realized right from the start that our first two missions were impossible. Firstly, the penguins freak out as soon as you begin approaching them and run into their holes/homes or flock in groups somewhere away from you.

Secondly, you’re supposed to stay within the confines of the path as to not interrupt their natural habitat. Thirdly, after 45 minutes of walking, observing and snapping penguin portraits we were cold and ready to head back. Unfortunately, the boats were long gone and we had to wait it out wondering if we were going to be abandoned on penguin island forever.

When our transportation finally returned, the conditions were even worse. The waves were so bad, it felt like we were being shaken up for a Shiratini. Lets just say that a 30-minute trip turned into over an hour and a half.

All in all, while we don't want to hear the word boat anytime in our future, we still love penguins and feel grateful we had the opportunity to go to this incredible spot. This isn’t necessarily a tourist trap, but make sure you tell your tour guide that you might not want to stay for more than an hour, wear warm clothes, bring Dramamine for possible boat nausea and lastly don’t get disappointed when you want to hug the penguins but they don’t want to hug back.

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