Penguins in holes?

  Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, Argentina
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Who knew penguins lived in holes?

Four of us hired a car to head to the largest penguin colony outside Antarctica.  Over 350,000 penguins live in this rookery and I guess I expected to see thousands of penguins hanging out on the beach pooping or something.

Instead, we walked through a pasture area near the ocean and the penguins were in holes! 

Many of the burrows were under small trees and shrubs, and they were all spaced a meter or so apart.  And the penguins marched around New York style with an "out of my way, I have places to go" attitude while wild llamas and sheep roamed among them.

Penguins dig holes - that's so weird!

Penguins are fearless and came right up to us. In fact, they like to pull shoestrings so you have to watch and make sure a penguin didn't sneak up and untie your shoe while you werent looking.

Currently they are sitting on their eggs and the chicks are supposed to begin hatching in about 2 or 3 weeks - I'm almost thinking about coming back to see the hatch... maybe.

 Make sure you check out the videos below... theyre hillarious!

Next up - shooting photos of the elephant seals with National Geographic.