PATAGONIA- Day 7

 Eight hours after we left El Calafate, we pulled into the parking lot at the dock in Punta Arenas and had about 30 minutes before our boat would be leaving for Isla Magdalena--the island of 60,000 pairs of penguins.  

A quick stretch and bathroom break and we were sailing on the Strait of Magellan! It was way too windy and wet to go outside, so I captured that full rainbow from 2 adjacent windows inside the cabin.  

 Fatigue was definitely setting in.  And something--the water or the food-- possibly in Argentina was catching up to us.  I thought if you got used to the water in one region, you'd be fine elsewhere.  

I was wrong.  Kate wasn't at her finest.  

When we arrived at the island, everyone perked up a bit.  How can you not be excited with 60,000 pairs of Magellanic penguins surrounding you?  I thought the smell would be wretched, so I stashed some nose plugs in my backpack.  But one perk of such horrific wind, is a fresh smelling island :)  

 This island, in the middle of the Strait of Magellan, is the one that all of the penguins come to, to reconnect with their mates for the season.  

 These penguins are monogamous.  They waddle around or stand by the nesting hole that they have dug and call out for their one and only.  Incredible to me, with all of the wind and thousands of others calling out, that the pairs ever connect!  But they do! 

 Happy day when you see two penguins waddling around together.  

 The kids were LOVING this.  

Let me rephrase that:  Kate and Jake were loving this.  The wind was so strong, that Luke gave up.  He just wanted to be held and kept his eyes closed the whole time.  Poor little thing.  Should have brought the backpack.

 Buddies

 "Outta my way!"

 True love

 Sick of the tourists???

 Looks like goosebumps to me!  

Well worth the 8 hour drive to make the Thursday tour.  

Apparently the ferries don't like Fridays and Saturday we would be saying goodbye to the South.  We had to make this work.  So glad we did.  We happily boarded the boat again, put a movie on for the kids, and tried to slip in a quick catnap.