Friday February 12, 2016 – After the rough sea night last night, we entered the Cockburn Channel leading to the Strait of Magellan from the Pacific Ocean side and dropped anchor just outside of Punta Arenas (Sandy Point) in Chile. We took the first tender ashore and eventually ended up taking the last tender (1 hour after departure time) back to the ship. I’ll go into that part later, but suffice it to say that we did as much as we could in the allotted time and greatly enjoyed every minute.
Punta Arenas is The southernmost City on the South American Mainland and thus they say it is “The End of the World”. We were told the same thing in Ushuaia, Argentina and the reason for the dual claim is that Ushuaia is on an island (Tierra del Fuego) and Punta Arenas is on the Mainland. Suffice it to say we enjoyed both and will let the locals fight for the right to call themselves “The End of the World”. It is a city of about 140,000 people on the Straights of Magellan and looking over at Tierra del Fuego, albeit in the distance. It was here that Magellan stopped and saw the locals across the water lighting fires for warmth (they never wore clothes) and protection and called it the Land of Fires (Tierra del Fuego). In 1848 the Chilean Government set up a Penal colony here and with the advent of all the maritime traffic using this route, it grew in importance throughout the 1800’s. Many European settlers were attracted to the area for sheep farming and trade. It became a place for ships to load coal and provisions and grew until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 and ships no longer had to use the southern route. It languished until the 1940’s when oil was discovered and now is a sheep farming and tourist destination with some 120 cruise ships stopping during the summer months, and with roads connecting it to the rest of Chile, leading to domestic tourism.
Having spoken to Alejandra – The World Voyage Concierge on the Ship, who is from Punta Arenas – she was able to give us some good pointers. Once ashore, the four of us squeezed, with the aid of a massive shoe-horn, into a local miniature taxi, with a driver who was tiny and well suited to the size of the vehicle!! He convinced us, without much difficulty, that we should spend an hour with him and he would give us a City Tour. Our first stop we were told was to be a dinosaur park, and we were excited to see this Archaeological zone. When we got there, it was a children’s park that had model concrete dinosaurs! We then drove around a nice middle class residential neighbourhood along the waters edge seeing an old rusted boat, then through very affluent residential areas, past churches, monuments and stops at view points overlooking the city. The most interesting stop was the Cemetery (a stop recommendation by Alejandra) and it did not disappoint at all. We were greeted with Enormous Mausoleums, some 3 stories high with cupolas, statues, gold ornamentation, fancy carvings and even pictures behind glass of the deceased. It was somewhat reminiscent of Recoletta in Buenos Aires where Evita Peron is buried. The 50 hectares (120+ Acre) cemetery donated by Sara Braun (1894-2014 – A wealthy local who moved from Europe and remained here) is beautifully kept, with 30 ft topiarised trees etc. Street names for the walkways between mausoleums, a chapel and in general a very impressive place. The driver dropped us at the Main Square (Plaza de Armas) with its Cathederal, Government Offices, Banks and a local Artisan market, which immediately attracted our attention. In the Center of the square is a statue of Ferdinand Magellan on a pedestal and on one of the sides is a contemporary native whose foot all should touch to have good luck and return to Punta Arenas. We duly touched and were photographed to prove we were here, then proceeded to the Cafe Tapiz – A charming place recomended by Alejandra, where we had Pita sandwiches with Palta (Avocado), Palmito (heart of palm) and other delicacies washed down by a banana smoothie. At this point we had to rush to the port to go on our tour at noon.
The tour we had chosen was to go, by speed boat to an island belonging to Chile in the middle of the Magellan Strait, 35 Km from Puna Arenas, called Magdalena Island, to visit with Penguins. We were very excited and after a 25 minute coach ride arrived at the pier and crammed into this covered speedboat. After 45 minutes in rough-ish ocean swells, we reached the 85 Hectare (210 Acre) island and immediately upon setting foot there on, we were amazed at the sight. Everywhere one looked were Magellan Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus). It is a sanctuary established in 1966 for wild penguins to come and nest and raise their young. The current population is about 65,000 pairs of penguins who mate for life. The males arrive in early spring (September) to prepare nests in the ground of the windswept island with virtually no vegetation. Their female mates arrive some two weeks later and after mating and 40 day gestation, the two offspring per pair are born in early summer – November, with both parents taking turns caring for their eggs, then hatchlings while the other spends up to 8 hours feeding and bringing food back to the young. A walking path leading to the lighthouse is set up with strings along which we wandered, but Penguins crossed the path (they have the right of way) and stood, lied around and generally carried on, ignoring us. We were fortunate in two ways – great weather and the only humans on the island. We all have seen penguins in zoos and captivity, but here we, were the strange creatures invading their habitat. We were all given strict instructions to take pictures without flash, no touching or getting too close (they are wild and can be unpredictable if provoked) and give them room to walk in front of you – all humans adhered. We were all so fascinated wandering past their little caves, seeing couples waddling down to the shore, swimming (they are very fast) and generally going about their daily lives. A truly amazing sight. Also on the islands were tens of thousands of seagulls and cormorants flying in and out, but if they got too close to the Pelican’s nest, the birds came off worse for ware and we saw many carcasses of birds that were no match for the breeding penguins. We spent a full hour on the island, enjoying immensely the spectacle and taking hundreds of pictures. We were sorry to leave the island, but the guides won out and we (40 people) re-boarded the small boat. A welcome cup of tea was enjoyed as we went some 15 minutes further to another island.
This was Marta Island, much smaller at 12 Hectares (30 Acres), but also exciting. It is the home of more penguins, plus thousands of sea lions (Otaria flavecenes) and southern fur seals (Arctocephalus australis). We did not get off on the island, the sea conditions were now much too rough to dock, but we did stop a few yards from the island to take pictures from the boat. Here once again, we were “up close and personal” with the seals and sea lions, watching them basking on the shore, swimming around and generally enjoying their lives. The odour emanating from that island resembled a clogged up open sewer!!! Despite the smell, the spectacle enthralled us all. After some 20 minutes at the island it was time to take the 1 hour, very rough in parts, ride back to the shore, where we met up with the coach and back to the Port to get the last tender back to the ship. For some reason, there was a miscommunication as the tour was not supposed to end until 5:30 (we arrived back a bit past that due to the rough seas), but the ship had posted that the last tender left at 5. Thus all the crew were waiting for us to arrive, so as soon as we were loaded, off we all went back to the ship. We were barely on board when the captain announced we are weighing anchor and are set to depart. Just in time! What an amazing experience – one we will never forget, wandering with penguins and seeing other marine mammal’s and birds up close.
After tea and a lot of chatter about the excitement of the day, The four of us had dinner in the cafeteria and I went to the show – three Anglo-African singers (The FlyRights) doing a fusion of Soul, Mowtown and Swing (eg The Four Tops) to an enthusiastic crowd.
Roger & Anne Travels 