17/01/2019 – Beagle Channel and Penguins, Ushuaia, Argentina

Mum and dads wedding anniversary today. 39 years seems like a long time! We looked it up but apparently there is no theme for 39 Years. Dad had bought mum a card though which was sweet! We had breakfast in the hotel then got ourselves dressed, sorted and our bags packed. One has to be prepared for all seasons in Patagonia. We knew it was cold outside but getting ready was difficult because the hotel was unbelievably hot. Josh drove us to the port and dad checked us in to the tour whilst we parked the car and went to meet him. He gave us our boarding passes and we walked to the pontoon. I think we had just scraped in time wise, and so got put onto a few random seats all over the boat for take off and the safety briefing. The guide on the boat recommended to go to the bow on the lower deck for the best view, so we quickly found ourselves that spot with a good view. Lucky we had all our layers with us, as it was pretty chilly when the boat got moving. Josh hadn’t got all his warm gear with him so was trying to pretend he wasn’t cold for most of the way! Our first stop was to look at a little island in the channel inhabited by a lot a lot a lot of black and white cormorant birds. They were fun to watch and mum and I used our binoculars whilst Dad and Josh snapped away with their cameras. The scenery was unreal with the mountains all around. Our next pitstop was an island full of sea lions! They were just beautiful to watch, and the boat got really close to them so we had a great view! We drove through the Beagle channel for quite a long time, past a load of lighthouses and little islands. Josh kept asking dad boating questions and he tried to learn about the wind a bit, which was funny for us! After enough time for us to feel pretty cold around the edges, the boat beached up on an island full of penguins! The penguins did not seem fussed at all and kept fishing, swimming and waddling around as if we were invisible. The were such a joy to watch, they do look so harmless and cute! Where we were standing became very crowded and for most people on the boat this was the closest they would get to the penguins, so we retreated inside, and got a good viewpoint from inside the boat in the warm. Mum had made friends with some Dutch people on the boat, so we met them and they asked Josh and I about our trip. It is funny how curious people seem to be in our trip, but I suppose we are very lucky to have had such an opportunity. After a good pause watching the penguins, the boat moved on to another island, where some of the passengers, including us, disembarked. We had haf an hour so went to the only restaurant on this little bit of land for some food. We had some soup and warmed up before going back to the jetty and meeting our guide for the next bit of the trip. About 15 passengers inclusing us were loaded onto a RIB with a little roof, and shuttled back to the island inhabited by the penguins. We got out of the RIB and onto the island to start our walk with penguins. What an absolutely amazing thing to do! The penguins were just not fussed, and it is the only other time, aside from the Galapagos, that I have been able to get this close to a wild animal. It was really surreal and otherworldy. It was hard not to push boundaries and go closer than the recommended 3m distance. In fact at one point a penguin came so close to me I instinctively jumped and pulled myself back as I thought it might peck my arm or something! We saw the penguins burrows in the ground. Apparantly it is the male penguins job to build a nice burrow, and if the female doesn’t like it she might find a different partner. When the penguin couple have established their burrow they use it every year for their whole lifetime! It is breeding season so we saw lots of fluffy penguin chicks being fed regurgitated fish by their parents. We saw the penguin crèche – this particular species of penguin get all the kids together in one area, which is guarded by one adult penguin, which means all the parents can go out fishing for food. It was so funny to see, clever penguins! In the middle of the crèche was a penguin with a yellow neck – a King Penguin! It had a lump in its belly – it is guarding an egg! Apparently its partner was out fishing, but these are two lost penguins, so the guide is really hoping they manage to hatch their egg! Apparently they have one switchover to do with the egg/fishing and then hopefully the egg should hatch so the guide is hoping anyway. We saw a turkey vulture swoop down and eat something from one of the burrows. The guide told us that there had been a lot of rain last week which gives the chicks, who are not waterproof yet, hypothermia and lots of them died, so the vulture was probably eating a dead chick. One penguin walked purposefully right past a lady on our tour, stuck its bum in the air and then shot out a huge white poo all over her foot. We had been just behind her and had watched it all happen, I couldn’t help but crease up with laughter! We had about an hour walking around the island, which felt like about 10 minutes. This was such an unforgettable experience! We boarded the RIB again and went back to the nearby island, where we were taken to the bones museum. We were shown around the museum by a volunteer who spoke to us about the marine animals in the area. She showed us how the scientists and volunteers work to study get information about the area. The museum stank so much, I bet the hut where they scrub the bone remains clean must be unbearable. The lady showing us around told us how one of the marine whales, which has no teeth, secretes a bubble of milk surrounded by fat into the sea, and the young gulp it up. Nature is amazing! By the time we had warmed up by walking around the museum we were all starting to feel drowsy. We boarded a coach, and Josh and I fell asleep so quickly. There was a short pitstop near a forest, and then the drive continued for over an hour to get back to Ushuaia. We went to the tourist information office and got our passports stamped. Then we drove to the laundrette and picked up our washing. Back at the hotel we showered up and went down to dinner. The hotel owner, Seb made us a delicious prawn starter and we all had an amazing king crab main course. It was really incredible and fresh food. We shared a bottle of fizz called ‘Colon’ which really tickled dad, as you can imagine, the jokes were rolling! When we got back to mum and dads room we listened to the story of Butch Cassidy via a YouTube video, and before long everyone (especially dad) was dozing off, and so, to bed after an absolutely unbelievably day.