You can’t go so south of Chile to Patagonia and not take some time to meet the penguins.
Isla Magdalena is just a 2-hour ferry ride away from Punta Arenas. And the trips run twice a day. Evening time around 4PM is when we boarded the ferry.
Magellanic Penguins live here in large numbers. We heard the numbers from 80,000 to 120,000.
The National Park service has put a rope around perimeter of the Island for the tourist to walk from the ferry dock to the light house. But the penguins still have to cross the tourist walking area to get to the ocean. These penguins seem very comfortable with humans around.
The weather in the Island is very harsh. It gets extremely windy and be prepared to deal with biting cold and wind.
The tour usually lasts for an hour in the Island.
If you want to see King penguins, the trip to reach the Islands are much longer. Since we didn’t have enough time, we opted for this one-evening excursion. If you have time, it’s worth going to see the King penguins.
They sometimes get really close to you and don’t mind posing for a few pictures.
It was interesting to see that these penguins dig a whole underground to protect the chicks.
