Day 94 –A formal affair
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2011
1
93
98
Trip End
Dec 21, 2011
Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
We were driven up to the docks where we were prodded onto the small zodiac boats. At first we weren’t sure that this was the most appropriate moment for the last of our non-drowsy Gravol tabs, but soon we wondered if we should have taken something stronger. The already rough whitecaps and swells were made worse by the captain’s insistence of ramming into them dead straight. About an hour later, neither of us was feeling well, but it definitely hit Marie harder.
However, the boat ride soon didn’t matter as we were let off the boat and promised an hour on the island among the massive colony of penguins. They are cute!!
We rushed off and walked along the designated path between two ropes, stopping every foot to watch the antics of the penguins in all their personality. At first, we watched the penguins by the water as they expertly swim through the water, jumping out between sets of waves. They are so smooth until they hit shallow water, then it’s a bit more of fumbling around until they get onto the shore. From there, the rocks are just big obstacles as they shift their weight and stubby legs from side to side.
Further along the path we walked beside their nesting sites. The little eggs hatch here in November and if you looked hard enough you can start to see the downy little baby penguins being fed inside their dirt-side hovels. The one that gave us the best view was a family of four, with the parents and two babies. We can only guess that both babies hatched at the same time, but the one was much bigger than the other.
Around the nests was a flurry of activity with mom’s calling for the father’s to come with food. All around us was a sound that was almost like a llama whining more than anything else.
There were groups of many penguins that were banded together. Was it the flirtation and enticing calls of penguins searching for love? Or, was it the call of many mother’s calling for father’s that never made it back from the ocean while searching for food? In either case, it was magical to be witness to nature in the raw.
The older males were the most active. They were constantly moving between the nest and the ocean for food. They would waddle with determination until they reached the walking path and then approach with caution. The little guys would then peer curiously up at us, wondering whether it was safe to cross or if we had the right-of-way. We tried our best to let them pass undisturbed, but there were so many of them, if we ever were to make it to the washroom in the lighthouse, we just had to get moving.
Once the penguins reached the far side of the path, there was still the hill to contend with. It wasn’t very steep, but proved to be a worthy adversary to the ocean adept creatures. We watched, cheering for them as they accelerated down the dirt hill, unable to control their speed. Their little penguin wings were fully spread as they tried their best to stay balanced. Of course, there were a couple of pretty epic wipe-outs.
In short, these creatures were the most inquisitive and charismatic of the animals we’ve seen on our travels. Each of them were so full of character and little, individual personalities. It was such a shame we had to get back to our boat, in what seemed like such a short stay on this magical island.
It was time to head back to the boat. We stalled as long as we could, as a group of curious penguins gathered their courage and came nearer to us. It was a little sad to watch them get caught on a low lying piece of rope that divided their path. The rope was just low enough to get one leg over, but the rear leg was always tricky for them to hurdle. We wanted as much as anything to either cut the rope or help them get untangled, but they soon figured it out for themselves.
Our time was up and we hauled back on the boat. Thankfully, the waves had subsided a little, but the weather ahead was too rough for us to voyage further out to the Isla Marta to visit the sea lion and elephant lion colony. Marie actually let out a cheer. We had enough of the rough ocean already.
On the way back we were offered coffee spiked with Pisco, but politely declined. Then near the coast, we stopped by an old platform, resting and rusting in the middle of the ocean. Surrounding this metal relic are the nests of the two kinds Cormorants. The lower, black ones seemed to nest on increasingly growing heights of straw and feces. They were quite pretty birds, just not the most hygienic.
Before long we were docked and heading back down the road, back to the office. That was it for the excursion today. It was weird doing an early morning excursion because we were now so tired and elated, we couldn’t imagine doing much else but napping.
First, it was time for lunch. We tried looking at other restaurants, but none matched our cravings or met our budget needs better than Gyro’s. We ushered our way towards the back, to the same seats we had yesterday. We truly are creatures of habit. This time, we switched it up with a chorizo pizza and chacero (a sandwich with thin slices of beef) washed down with a monster beer. It was not helping my drowsiness.
Back at the homestead, we finally got our monster nap in. When we awoke, we needed to accomplish some final bookings. It is amazing how much time and energy it has been booking hostels, transportation and finding little things to do in each town. We’re only going to be here once, so we try our best to pick out the highlights of each city. Sometimes we somehow manage to do it all, others we see the bare minimum. Though it seems like we’ve been gone for so long, there is still so much more to see here. Sometimes we forget how action-packed our days really are, even when we seem to take things slow.
It seems like we’re always neglecting one aspect of our trip as there aren’t enough hours in our day or days in our holiday. We’re either not sleeping, not relaxing, not planning or neglecting our communication with home. It had been since Bolivia that we had any contact with home aside from the odd email and we really appreciated skyping with my sister Brenda for a bit. We can feel that we’re nearing the end of our trip and are thinking of home more and more.
Tonight is our last night in Chile. We’ve spent over 30 days here and we’ll miss this thinly stretched country. We put a lot of thought into what we wanted for our final dinner here, but we were already in our pajamas. The only thing that made sense was getting sushi delivered.
It took a culmination of all our Spanish language skill, but we did it. Actually, it was a little embarrassing how hard the process was considering we had an online menu and the lady on the opposite end spoke broken English much better than our broken Spanish. However, food was on its way.
When our order came, it was so big that they brought three plate settings. We ate our fill of gyozas (translated and described as little Japanese empanadas), rolls, sushi and sashimi. I think the rolls were the winners as our favourites had salmon and avocado inside with either a deep fried batter outside or the thin layer of avocado on the outside. It was delicious.
Soon after, we finished our packing and went to bed, trying to think of all our favourite memories of Chile. It’s been a wonderful country.
Hope all is well!
Love,
Gary and Marie
