December 22, 2017

   Today was an early awakening, so that we could have breakfast and be ready for the excursion meeting in the Mondriaan Lounge by 6 a.m. The sun was up at 5:12 a.m. with only some low cloud along the horizon, but mostly sunny. The temperature was 5 C and the wind was strong. The ship was making its final approach from the Strait of Magellan into the Port of Punta Arenas, Chile’s most southerly city. The pier was too short for the ship so it had to be secured to special anchored buoys as well as to the pier.

    The strait is named after the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, who discovered the passage in 1520. In the 19^th century the area thrived on wool and mutton production. In the Punta Arenas city center square is a statue of Magellan, the church and museums. We did not go into the city center.

    There were 120 people who took the buses to catch the ferry to Magdalena Island by 7 am. There were four buses to drive the five minute route. We got off the buses and walked about 100 meters over the rocky beach, to walk up the ferry vehicle ramp, then up steep stairs and along a 30 meter bridge to the passenger compartment, then up another level to find seats for the hour and 45 minutes ride to the island penguin rookery.  Within a few minutes of casting off, the rain started for about 15 minutes causing the windows to fog up.  When it stopped, the sun shone for the rest of the morning.  All the passengers were given a bag as they got on the ferry with a ham & cheese sandwich on crustless white bread, a chocolate chip muffin, a 210 ml pineapple juice box, a small package of cubed desert peaches, a cereal bar, a chocolate bar, and a 500 ml bottle of water. Most people saved the “snack” for after the island visit.

    We exited the ferry onto a rocky beach with screeching gulls flying overheard and thousands of Magdalena Penguins walking about the shore and hillside. Our guide explained that we had about 50 minutes to watch the penguins and could walk only on the designated paths. If a penguin was on a path, we had to wait for it to wander off  and were not allowed to touch the penguins. This is breeding season and there were many fluffy gray chicks peeking out of the burrows where the parents had dug nests. We even saw some sand flying out of one burrow where a penguin was making the hole larger.  Sometimes there was a low honking sound of a penguin trumpeting a call, other times if you were close to a nest you could hear the pepping of a chick.  The only vegetation on the island is grass.  Both the Magdalena Penguins and the neighbouring Kelp Gulls use grass for their nests. On nearby Marta Island, there is a Cormorant colony and other gulls and some penguins.  In 2012 there were 69,000 penguin couples in the area.  The penguins, returning from fishing in the strait, hopped on to the shore and basked in the 12 C sunshine to dry for a moment before waddling to their nest. For the most part, the penguins went about their daily activity and ignored the tourists. The Magdalena Penguins are only about one meter tall. Thousands of pictures were taken as some penguin behavior was observed.

Steps 3,654

   The voyage back had rougher seas and took two hours.  We landed at the beach beside the Armada of Chile property and passed an old torpedo boat on a base by the entrance to the Armada property.  The busses returned us to the ship. Then we got the laptop and took a shuttle to the duty free store and a close by mall to find Wi-Fi to post to the blog.  However, there were so many people on the mall Wi-Fi that you could not connect, so we walked the two kilometers back to the ship. Steps 12,173

    We hung up our jackets, grabbed our books and ordered a Chai Tea Latte and a Caramelato Latte to sip while we read, for the rest of the afternoon, by the large windows in the Explorers Lounge, which had a view of the town of Punta Arenas in the distance. Around 4 pm we could hear a faint band and looked out to see a four piece band playing Christmas Carols on the pier. We don’t know if it was one of the ship’s bands or a local band. They must have been cold playing in the strong wind and +7 C temperature.

   At dinner it was just us, Shin and Joyce and Doug. Jan was waiting to watch the sail-away, which was delayed by an hour because the afternoon ferry to see the penguins was late in starting as it was late returning from the morning tour due to the morning’s late start. It did not return until after 6:30 pm and we were supposed to have departed at 6 pm.

   Tonight’s choices were Shrimp in tangerine, Bacon & cabbage soup and Dos Frijoles Soup as appetizers; entrees of Snapper (fish) with rice and Pepper crusted flat iron steak with potato and shrimp rosti.  For desert, we had Strawberry cheesecake and Raspberry Sundae.

  After dinner, the ship left Punta Arenas going south on the Strait of Magellan then to the Cockburn Channel and out to the Pacific Ocean before entering the Beagle Channel and Glacier Alley in the morning. We danced a few dances after dinner in the Ocean Bar. There was not a show performed today, but they were showing the BBC documentary “Frozen Planet Live” which we saw on the Koningsdam when cruising the Norway fjords in June.

This is being posted in Ushuaia, Argentina. There will probably be no more postings until we get to Port Stanley, Falkland Islands on December 31^st. Hopefully we will find Wi-fi there. We had considered getting the ship’s Wi-fi but have heard that as we keep going south towards Antarctica it is extremely slow and not worth getting as you can’t accomplish anything.

Steps 13,543