Penguins & Such

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Well today we visited penguins, so I felt obligated to post pictures and some comments. First of all, I made an error in my previous entry, the town we are currently in is called Punta Arenas, which was kind of what I thought initially, but then figured I must have been seeing things since Punta means hooker (at least in central American Spanish) consequently I made an assumption that is was Puerto, but apparently I was wrong.

Regardless, the town is quite delightful and our hotel is second to none. We started calling it the Tara hotel because of all the similarities in decorating styles (or at least we thought).

The penguin expedition was a moderate success, we had envisioned an advantageous situation in which we would rent a vehicle and scour the coast for the curious little birds. Instead we wound up at a small park, that was rather touristy but good for the penguins I suppose with a protected area for them to enjoy life.

At first we thought we would have problems since the park closed on April 1st, hence we got there on the very last day. The penguins apparently vanish into the sea, or Antarctica (or wherever they go) and thus we determined we would either see a thriving colony of them or we would see none at all. What we got was just a few scattered about wondering where all their friends went. Their paths and tunnels were quite fascinating, well I shouldn´t say tunnels they were more like little burrows to crawl into. Either way, our penguin count stopped abruptly at three. Well there was actually a fourth but we won´t talk about that.

We also saw some other birds and a fox! No pictures of the fox though. We ended up having a picnic on the lake shore about a half hour away where we celebrated with beer and wine. Tomorrow Doris and Michael fly up to Santiago. Our time together draws to a close but it has been really awesome, having had the benefit of Doris´planning and Michael as a fourth for hearts. Jord, Ry and I will wait out the weekend here in Punta Arenas before heading even further south on Sunday morning. Our next goal is to find the bottom of the bottle at the bottom of the world!

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Photos

Found!
Well I found one of our little penguin friends for my dearest Jacky and thus hope she will be pleased! I am no zoologist but I believe you are looking at me with a chinstrap penguin.

The streets
The city streets of Punta Arenas

Puerto Natales
Shot of the harbour from Puerto Natales, notice the award winning Chilean flag!

Jord & Jas Versus the Whiskey
Obviously we all know who won this bout.

Old Man Versus The Mountain
For Dev! (Sorry, best I have!)

Spoiled
From a multitude of jobs and a heavy courseload, this is what he has been reduced to!

Comments

[Carolyn Dixon]

You made it!
You go guys! I'll have one in your honor. You were right about Pelenque. More time next time.

[Jode]

the book
Tell Ryan I just finished reading that book and am on the fourth one (it's amazing) and I will send my finished ones (some of them) with Georgina when she meets you in Africa so you don't have to keep buying them.

[Ralph]

Correction
Punta means point and puta means hookers. "By the way if there are any good hookers send them my way. (not for me but I have a friend that needs a good oil change) Thanks for the enjoyable reading. I've been tracking you for a while since central america. Have a great time!

[craig and dee]

jason-thoroughly enjoying your blog-keep up the good work and stay healthy and safe-going to see your mom and dad next month for our 40th P.W. reunion-man we are old-thanks again for your sayulita info-just got back from a month of sun and swell-take care,craig and dee

[Jacky]

Yeah Penguins!
Love the penguin picture! Much unlike *ahem* Jordans' blog. (He's a wierdo). Thank you!