Meeting Penguins

Let's cut straight to the chase and highlight of this part of the trip. Meeting penguins. You heard right, this afternoon we're going back to Isla Martillo by way of Estancia Haberton and zodiac, to land on the island and walk amongst our new little friends. There's a few rules to keep in mind, stay on the marked paths, don't touch or engage the penguins and be quiet. The practice is for minimal impact on the penguins, after all, the Isla is their home and we're the guests, just quietly passing through. Oh, and the most important rule of all, you cannot take one of these penguins home.

We do a beach landing on the opposite side of where we were yesterday so that we would start our walk through the nesting area where burrows have been dug, and some of the penguins are changing their feathers for the season. Some of them are still patchy. Magellans are everywhere and our camera happy fingers went click click click again. Our guide explains more about the penguins, but I'm so far behind (there's also no running) yet more than content to take more photos and just watch the penguins, some of who look back at us.

On the other side of the island, we wander the beach that we couldn't step foot on yesterday. There are some gentoo penguins on this side, they're got the orange feet. And we were even in luck, the 2 king penguins from yesterday are still here. Our guide allows us to go closer, but only in a single file to take a few quick photos each. Our time on the island comes to an end much too soon. And with that, our tour as well. When we get back into town, we'll be having our pre-farewell dinner. I say pre because we leave Ushuaia in the morning along with a few friends staying behind to embark on an Antarctic adventure.

Side bar - after visiting the penguins, we would return to Haberton and visit their marine museum run by volunteer students. A very neat place to check out while you're there and learn how to differentiate the different wildlife in the area. We'd also stop by a place in the forests where the trees appear to grow sideways.Read more