Punta Arenas and penguins

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So after our adventures in Torres del Paine and Perito Moreno and after a very boring day in rainy Puerto Natales, we arrived on New Year's Eve in Punta Arenas, the last city on the American continent. It would be the end of the world, if it wasn't for the Tierra del Fuego island just south of it. But it's good enough.

We were happy with my selection of hostel, Fin del Mundo, which was a lively but homely place and we immediatelly made friends who we hung out at midnight and the next couple of days as well. NYE was quite funny, wanted to go to a club but they all open at 1 am, quite silly. Eva was insistent that we have some drinks and go but after too much wine and pisco sour, she fell into bed at 1 am!!! I was a bit more lively and stayed up a bit longer, dancing to salsa music and playing pool.

The 1st January was spent visiting the cemetery in the morning......not coz we're morbid but coz it's a very interesting cemetary. There's a big population of Croatians in Punta Arenas so every other grave was a Visnic or some other.

After the cemetary we headed to a penguin colony Seno Otway in the straights of Magallan to see some penguins in their natural habitat. There weren't thousands of them, maybe a couple of hundred, which was a bit dissapointing but those little buggers walked around like there's no tomorrow, didn't really mind walking under our feet. Their little ones are so cute, furry things as big as their parents. And they smell of fish more than fish themselves. But it was interesting and I managed to get some good shots. Unfortunately the boats to Isla Magdallena, which is a larger colony, wouldn't run because of the weather so we didn't go there. Probably just as well as I was hungover and don't think my stomach would be able to manage a small boat and the waves.

After another day wasted in Punta Arenas - why oh why did I not change my flight - it was back to Santiago for a bit of sun! Which is where I'm now......stilll.....but not for long! Damn.

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