Pingüinos!

Good weather for flightless birds

When we got rained and frozen out of the Torres del Paine after our laborious preparations, without even a glimpse of the fabled peaks, we needed consolation. So we headed south to see us some penguins.


The Strait of Magellan -- and it looks flat, doesn´t it?


Looks can be deceiving -- more on this later

We opted to spring for the somewhat pricier trip to Isla Magdalena because it promised more satisfying quantities of waddling birds.

We were not disappointed.



The penguins are remarkably unconcerned with humans. We met a penguin expert, returning from his last visit to monitor nests, who told us that they don´t have many natural predators -- even the massive sea lion colony nearby apparently doesn´t pose a big threat, except for rogue young males.

So we were able to stroll along our carefully delineated path-for-humans and the penguins waddled across as they liked, and it was all very orderly. Our small group laughed and pointed and took pictures and some people got quite close, and they didn´t seem to mind. If they did, they just waddled off.


Perambulating purposefully

The penguins are on Isla Magdalena to mate. The authorities have thoughfully provided signage to explain how this works.



My favorite part is the stage at which they stare at each other. I think this is the first date.


Do you feel the magic?

I´m not sure whether this date occurs before or after the males have hooted their little hearts out.



To a human ear, this is not exactly Sinatra. Thousands of penguins are constantly craning their necks and honking passionately away, so if you closed your eyes, it might seem like you´re in the midst of an orchestra of donkeys. The reality is no less odd.



Anyway, the hooting and the staring result in this:



We got there at a time when the little ones are in their awkward stage.




But of course they´re still adorable.

Unfortunately, the penguin expert told us, there has recently been a serious drought on the island, killing off much of the vegetation. The usual high winds now blow the dirt around and when storms come, dirt can fill up the burrows, suffocating the babies. Horrible. With roughly 65,000 breeding pairs on the island, the population hopefully isn´t in imminent danger of collapse, but it´s another of the nasty indirect effects of climate change.

The penguin expert told us this and much else while we were on the long, rough trip back. I was grateful for something to concentrate on aside from the pitching and churning. Though it was kind of fun too. Check out the video at the end of Blake´s post to see more on that.


Note the color of the passengers´ faces