Penguins at Punta Tombo

click images to enlarge

Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Mission Completed

If you are just joining our South America journey, you may not know that I LOVE Penguins !!

All my life I've had a fascination with them, which prompted us to book this Southern South America cruise.  At this point, we'd already been on two excursions, this cruise, where we saw penguins in their natural habitat.  This excursion topped the other two combined.

Penguins Grand Finale

Day 11 we arrived in Puerto Madryn, Argentina early in the morning.  The meeting time for our excursion was 7:15 AM, which meant we had to get up really early to shower and have breakfast.
One good thing was that this wasn't a tender port, so additional time didn't have to be allowed for that.

Our destination was the Punta Tombo Nature Reserve, two and a half hours away by motorcoach.

The distance traveled was 140km from the pier.  We made a rest stop about an hour after leaving the ship. Along the way, our guide pointed out some of the wildlife and the bus driver stopped when he could for us to take pictures. We saw, Choiques (large flightless birds), domestic Llamas, Guanacos (related to camels and wild ancestors of domestic Llamas), and armadillos. The last 30km of the trip was on a dirt road.

Penguins at Punta Tombo Nature Reserve

Thousands of Magellanic Penguins return to the shores of the reserve each year.  From September through March they spend their time courting, mating, and hatching a brood of chicks. By April, both mature and young penguins are ready to migrate to warmer climates.

Just imagine you are with us as we arrive at the reserve.

About Magellanic Penguins

These are the largest species of warm-water penguins.  They have a white chin-strap marking, a pink line at their lower jaw, and a black bill. They are a noisy bunch, especially the "babies" who greeted us with squawks and shrieks.

Our Visit

We meandered along the trail stopping to observe and photograph these cute penguins in thier natural habitat.  It was quite windy, so we opted to only go about half-way along the trail which was flanked by the sea on one side and the burrows on the other.  One could visit the lighthouse to view an exhibit.  We decided we'd rather enjoy the penguins that look at an exhibit.

Our intention was to observe the penguins enjoying themselves for as long as possible.  In fact, we were the last ones to return to the ferry.  The guide told us we had to leave, otherwise we could have stayed there all day.

Do you like Penguins?

We highly recommend adding a Southern South America cruise to your bucket list.  The season is short (January - March) so you'll probably need to plan it for next year at the earliest. I don't like to do  much promotion in our blog, but Princess Cruises has an Anniversary Sale through the end of February which includes itineraries in South America.  You might consider booking now to take advantage of the extra onboard spending money.

Also see my other blog posts on our Penguin Excursions:
Penguins of Punta Arenas
Penguins of Falkland Islands






Click on the image to the right for more Blog posts about this trip.

Related Album:

Punta Tombo


Additional photos can be found on our South America Shutterfly page

View Our Other Shutterfly Share Pages

Follow Us On

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers

Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat 

Penguins of Punta Arenas

click images to enlarge

Mission Accomplished

All my life I've had a fascination with penguins.  Growing up in Chicago, I had the opportunity to see them at the Shedd Acquarium.  When we went on our Galapagos Xpedition Cruise, there were some penguins on the rocks that we could view from our zodiac.

I've seen a few penguins in captivity on other cruises as well.  The thought of being amongst thousands of penguins is what drove our decision to book this South America cruise.

When we think of penguins, we often picture ice and snow. But only a few species of penguins live in Antarctica and withstand that continent’s coldest temperatures. Most penguins in the world—ten out of seventeen species—live in temperate areas and never see ice or snow.

Penguins First Look

Day 6 we arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile early in the morning.  The captain had been concerned the day before that we might not be able to get into port due to forecasted high winds.  The safe wind speed for port operations is 35 knots and the forecast was for 50 knots. Fortunately, the weather was better than expected and we arrived on schedule.

After breakfast we went to Wheelhouse Bar to get a tender ticket for our tour.  When we arrived at the bar, they had already begun staging the groups in the theater, so we got our sticker and proceeded to the designated section for our tour.  It wasn't long and our row was called and a guide escorted us to deck 4 and a waiting tender boat.

It was about a 15-20 bus ride to the dock where we'd catch the ferry boat which would take us to Magdalena Island.  The ferry ride took about two hours.  As we boarded the ferry, we were given lunch bags.  They consisted of a sandwich, cookies, juice box, bottle of water, cup of fruit, and a cereal bar.   Most passengers opted to save it for the return trip.

Magdalena Island

The island is located in the Strait of Magellan.  The rockery on the island is one of Chile's largest and most important Magellanic penguin breeding sites.   Currently there were 65,000 pairs along with growing baby penguins who were shedding their fuzzy skin.

We disembarked the ferry's ramp directly on the shore.  After a short walk, we were greeted by the first penguins who were going about their daily routines without paying much attention to us.  The pathway, marked by ropes on either side, cuts through the colony of burrows many of which contained breeding penguins.

About Magellanic Penguins 

These are the largest species of warm-water penguins. They have a white chin-strap marking, a pink line at their lower jaw, and a black bill. They are a noisy bunch, especially the "babies" who greeted us with squawks and shrieks.

Magellanic Penguins were named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in the mid-1500s through what is now called the Strait of Magellan. A temperate species, Magellanic Penguins are usually about two to two-and-a-half feet tall and weigh between six and fifteen pounds when fully grown. Their closest relatives are the other temperate penguin species: the Galápagos, Humboldt, and African Penguins.

Our Visit

We meandered along the trail stopping to observe and photograph these cute penguins in their natural habitat.  It was quite windy, so we opted to only go about half-way along the trail which was flanked by the sea on one side and the burrows on the other.  One could visit the lighthouse to view an exhibit.  We decided we'd rather enjoy the penguins that look at an exhibit.

Our intention was to observe the penguins enjoying themselves for as long as possible.  In fact, we were the last ones to return to the ferry.  The guide told us we had to leave, otherwise we could have stayed there all day.

Do you like Penguins?

We highly recommend adding a Southern South America cruise to your bucket list.  The season is short (January - March) so you'll probably need to plan it for next year at the earliest.

I don't like to do much promotion in our blog, but Princess Cruises has an Anniversary Sale through the end of February which includes itineraries in South America.  You might consider booking now to take advantage of the extra onboard spending money.







Related Albums:

Punta Arenas Penguins


Note:  we will be adding to these albums as we continue our journey.

Click on the image to the right for more Blog posts about this trip.

Additional photos can be found on our South America Shutterfly page

View Our Other Shutterfly Share Pages

Follow us on Twitter: @ChrisPappinMCC  

Pinterest: CruiseWithChris Pappin 
and Facebook: CruiseWithChris Pappin Cruises Inc

Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat