The Parable of Penguins in Punta Arenas (or the Mating Habits of the Magellenic Penguins on Magdalena Island)

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Sharon was pretty excited about today’s tour in Punta Arenas, because you guessed it, we finally get to see PENGUINS. And as we will no doubt learn over the next week or so, there are many different kinds of penguins, from the lords of the realm Emperor Penguins down to the Blue Pygmy Penguins that we saw on our cruise in New Zealand. We awoke, already in port, so it was a quick breakfast in the Lido before 7 AM. The full breakfast service was open, but I stuck with my oatmeal, potatoes and pork sausage links, while Sharon had her tour day fare of French toast and bacon with chocolate croissant.



The Showroom was already full of people, but we still were assigned to the first of six tour busses going by ferry to see the Magellanic Penguins of Magdalena Island. This was the most popular tour and it sells out early, so you really need to book it months in advance… There are only so many seats on the ferry and when they sell out, that’s all there is. The downside can be the weather, if it is bad the tour may be cancelled, or so I’ve heard. For us, on this day, the weather couldn’t have been better, the see was calm and the crossing was smooth; although, almost two hours. Temperatures reached close to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Our tour guide was Marisella. She began by welcoming us to the End of the World. She said that when we get to our next port, they will probably say the same thing, but that this is really the end of the world, connected to the continent as it is, and that Ushuaia is really just a disconnected island. She gave us a little background about the part of the Straights of Magellan that we would be crossing to the island with the penguins. The Magellanic Penguins attain a height of about 28 inches and weigh in normally between 3 and 4 kilograms (just under nine pounds). They can balloon up to twice that before they start molting because they do not swim or fish during this time and remain in their burrows. These penguins spend the southern winter in other areas, such as Brazil, but come here in the late spring, spending their summer Christmas here, before heading off for their winter retreat in early April. These penguins aren’t the ones you will see on ice flows or deep in the reaches of Antarctica. As adults, they have a black back, and a white stomach and there is a black and white stripe separating the two. The coloring protects them while swimming… the white blending with the sunlight above from predators below, and the black blending with the ocean bottom and depths from any predators above. The long daylight in the Southern summer is what the penguins seek on Magdalena Island, plus the fact that there are no natural predators on the island. While sea lions may attack these penguins, they only do so if they are exceptionally hungry and there are no other easy sources of food. On a nearby island there is a colony of sea lions living side by side with a colony of Magellanic penguins.



There’s a bit of a breeze on the ferry, so we were glad that we brought our light coats and hats; but, it was too warm in the cabin area inside. The cabin area, on two floors of the ferry, is a long narrow passage way with airline style seats (old airline style seats) and sometimes a table between seats that face each other. Although ours was the first of six tour busses to be assigned bus numbers, ours was the third or fourth to arrive at the ferry (just a five minute ride from the Veendam). We had another one of those bus drivers that disappeared, no doubt talking and smoking with his other bus driver buddies, but getting to the ferry late means that your seating choices wind up being at the very back along both walls, and having just one side with windows. They handed you a box lunch, only in a clear plastic bag when you boarded the ferry. It did have a bottle of water in it, so we didn’t need to bring a bottle with us. I didn’t want to be bothered with dragging the lunch with me wherever we went, so I decided to see what there was edible in it. There were two individual candy bars for each lunch, one was a crunch bar with white chocolate icing bottom that was quite good; the second was a Nestle chocolate bar with a strawberry center filling… I’m sorry, but if you’re going to put a chocolate bar in the lunch, leave out the things that will make some people not like them (like fruit filling, or nuts, and even crispy rice because you already have a crispy bar). Plain chocolate works for me, and semisweet would be even better. There was also a peach juice drink… okay, my bad: I don’t care for peaches, much less peach nectar, so this doesn’t work for me. That left the two tightly Saran Wrapped hamburger buns that were passing for two sandwiches. My first selection appeared to have a pinkish filling, I speculated at first cheese whiz with pimentos, but all I could come up with was that it tasted like eating rather dry bread crumbs… the buns weren’t the freshest and they were pretty squashed. And then I realized that this might pass for a really bad penguin roll, and so things brightened a bit, because earlier in the trip I was quite sure I would get to experience one of those. The other sandwich had what was trying to pass for ham (someone said it was ham, but I only suspect because there was also a piece of sweaty cheese accompanying it). I rather think it might have been baloney. Sorry for going on so about the food on the tour, that certainly didn’t emphasize a lunch, they did de-emphasize the food as a “snack pack”, and that is what it was. I’m just saying, skip the sandwiches altogether and add some cookies and a bag of chips or a hard roll and some cheese. Everyone seemed rather skeptical of their sandwiches so they suggested that if I survived the next half-hour, they were safe to eat. And speaking of safety, we all got to watch a safety video on the overhead monitors, in Spanish with tiny English subtitles. Unless you were sitting directly in front of the monitor, it would have been nearly impossible to read these subtitles as the ferry was moving. We did get the general idea though. Water in these parts is in the 40’s, so it’s probably a good idea if nothing bad happens.



Marisella then came on the PA system, and introduced the six tour guides today. There was another Marisella, so she referred to herself as Marisella Two. She then began to go through the same spiel that she had given us on the bus. I decided to go up on the deck and took some pictures, and with the breeze, my light jacket worked just fine. When I came back down, everyone where I was sitting, especially Sharon, were giggling up a storm as Marisella continued with how those two young chicks were produced. She informed us that during the summer migration, the adult males are the first to arrive at Magdalena Island. Adults are five years old or older and have achieved the full adult coloring. Junior penguins are a splotchy gray color from head to webbed feet. The older males return to their burrow, returning to the same burrow every year. The first time adults must dig their own burrow, or if they are lazy as some are, try to squat on an existing burrow. That usually doesn’t work out too well if the owner of the burrow returns, but if the owner has died in the previous year, there is a slim chance that it does work out. Penguins typically live to an age of thirty years. It takes two weeks for a penguin to dig out a burrow out of sandy soil with small pebbles and sea debris. Then, fifteen days after the males arrive, the females return. You may have learned that penguins mate for life; but, Marisella said that is only partly true. First time penguin partners do mate for life, but if one of the penguins doesn’t return from the migration, then they will take another mate, but from then on, it’s just a summer love, and each year it will be a new partner. So Sharon reasoned from this that if male happens to choose a widow for his first mate, then for her it is just a summer fling… which doesn’t bode well for me. Our tour guide then went into a rather animated discussion of the courting of the Magellanic penguins, including them greeting each other in the water (she made sounds of them talking under water Ohhh IIIII missssssed you soooo much Baby and IIII missssed youuuu tooo). Then she talked about them courting each other by doing the Macarena (which she proceeded to sing) before heading off to their burrow to share a pisco sour by candlelight around the Christmas Tree. You probably had to be there to fully appreciate this story that those of us on the cruise will now always think of the Macarena and Penguins together. The female then lays two eggs and both parents take turns incubating them alternating with fishing.





Once we arrived on the island, we were told that we had one hour on the island from the point that the last person gets off of the ferry… another reason to get on the ferry and get a good seat towards the front. There are no facilities on the island, so the ship’s “marine heads” were in heavy use prior to our arrival (the line got upwards of a dozen people or so at each end of the ferry). There was a sign in Spanish above the toilette saying something about paper, and I can only imagine that you’re supposed to dispose of toilet paper in the stainless steel can in the rear corner. We were also instructed to leave all food onboard as you’re not allowed to eat on the island, and certainly not allowed to feed the penguins. We were instructed to stay within the roped pathway, which was clearly delineated once you got ashore, and should have needed no further explanation. But there is always that person on your tour to whom such rules don’t apply. As we were making our way down the ferry’s long ramp to the large gravel shoreline, we saw someone from our tour group ahead of us who crossed the double rope boundary and had wandered a couple hundred feet off the approved pathway to get closer to the penguins. She startled a group of about a dozen penguins and they went scurrying from her, appearing quite stressed by her presence as she is kneeling down to take some pictures. Her brazenness really was unnecessary because along the path you can get very close to penguins, and at times the penguins choose to cross the path. We had been warned that although penguins look cute and friendly, they can attack and bite, so you should give them their space. The lady ignored the first person who came over to tell her she could stay there, but did finally collect herself and get back on the path before the second person came over.



The initial stony beach probably stretched about one hundred feet from the waterline. Footing was awkward and there were those with walkers, walking sticks and canes who were being assisted by ferry personnel to maintain balance and to find proper footing. Some went as far as trying to smooth the path by moving larger unstable rocks out of the way in order to establish better footing. One traveler even arrived with a scooter for the disabled, and they somehow got it over the rocky section, I’m not sure he was able to do much more than just sit on it. About half of the people had some sort of hiking shoe or hiking boot, such as mine with the Vibram sole, which is probably the best footwear for this tour. Sharon had walking shoes, and was able to do fine once we reached the path. One lady looked like her shoes were better suited for a dance floor, and she explained, they were her best choice, but I’m wondering who doesn’t at least bring a pair of tennis shoes on a cruise? Sharon had heard some good advice on Cruise Critic about bringing some disposable painter booties to deal with the penguin poop, but that really isn’t an issue on this tour. You probably do want to take steps not to be standing directly behind a penguin, because penguin poop does have a habit of shooting out behind the penguin, and if Murphy has anything to say about, that’s just where some unsuspecting tourist might have one of those bird incidents, like Sharon in Valparaiso.



We had the option of taking the walk up to the lighthouse. Our guide said it was about 800 meters (about half a mile). There are two people that man the lighthouse for two weeks at a time. The shoreline is covered with riverbed sized gravel changing to the sandy dirt that the penguins make their burrows in. As far as you can see on this island are Magellanic penguins and their burrows. They are in little family clusters. Everywhere you hear an adult penguin shrieking for its mate to come. It is an eerily haunting, very soulful, very sorrowful sound of anguish as the penguin points its beak to the sky as you hear the howling start and the bird’s chest heaving rapidly with each rapid bellow that is put forth. Penguins can distinguish one’s mate from all of this din that is going on… Magdalena Island is not a quiet place… not when the penguins are up and there always seems to be penguins up and about. Some are laying on their bellies, letting the black on their backs soak in the sun. Some are cowering in the burrows… Sharon took won picture and called it “The Family That Molts Together, Stays Together”. There are young penguins at play, wondering if they dare to cross the path, seeing other penguins go down to the sea, but they are not yet ready for that. We saw two in a heated battle, that may have involved a male encroaching on another’s burrow, flapping their wings in an effort to punch the other, and using their beaks to try and bite the other’s neck. We saw a very animated ritual between two mates rubbing bellies, flapping their flippers, and rubbing their beaks from side to side. We decided against the walk up to the lighthouse, and saw plenty of penguins engaging in all sorts of amusing antics along the lower pathway.



Having only nibbled at the crisp bar in the snack lunch, Sharon made a beeline for the hamburger grill. I decided to make myself a couple of small burritos, and we split a Coke for our lunch. We checked out the dinner menu, picked up the daily Sudoku and headed for the Crow’s Nest for today’s Team Trivia. We found a former teammate, then collared another couple and had a team of five. Who in their right mind would call tomatoes “love apples”? I much preferred our answer: pomegranates. I think this is the third time Sharon and I have missed the largest lake in Africa… we really need to add that continent to her life list and maybe we’ll even visit Lake Victoria. Our new teammates did come up with the common name of a train station in New York, Philadelphia and Newark… Hint: It’s not Grand Central. We’re all kicking ourselves for not knowing where the fandango dance comes from, after the Spanish guitarist a few nights back mentioned this in his performance... ah yes, of course... Spain! Nobody on our team knew that the head of the Adam’s Family was employed as a lawyer. Sharon knew who the first African American actress was to break the color barrier in 1991 and win a leading lady Oscar, but she got over-ruled. It was alas, Whoopie Goldberg in “The Color Purple”. And we didn’t get the bonus question, “Who was the youngest Beatle?” Did you say, Ringo Starr? Wrong. How about Paul McCartney? Nope. John Lennon? Nope… That’s right George Harrison. Well, maybe tomorrow.



I went back to the room to write some more of the blog, and Sharon went off to mass. I was surprised when she came back a bit later and said that they’d misplaced the priest. They thought maybe he had fallen asleep but the Front Desk checked and showed that he hadn’t checked back in to the ship so the CD stopped by and said they were trying to locate him but didn’t know where he was. So they all said a prayer that he was safe. We learned the next morning that his shore excursion had gotten back late.



It was smart casual dining tonight. We changed and went up to dinner. I had the goat cheese with red onion jelly appetizer, which was great. They didn’t have a soup that appealed to me today, so I ordered the French onion soup, which is okay (better than my mom’s okay which really means that she doesn’t really like something). The equivalent in the Pinnacle is much better. And I ordered the blackened Ahi Tuna Ozkabuko (sp?) style. It came in a small amount of spicy cream sauce over a pile of rice, was essentially served seared, and melted in your mouth. I’d have to rate this among the best meals so far on the Veendam. Don’t let the rawness of the meat put you off, this really is a must-try. A lady from the UK opted against this dish because it wasn’t more thoroughly cooked. Sharon had the Prime Rib, which she enjoyed very much. She’s started to order her beef medium and this came just the way she likes it, a little pink but absolutely no red. We had chocolate crème custard for dessert, mine with vanilla ice cream. The cordial didn’t appeal to me this evening so I took a pass on that part of the meal.



We went to the 8 PM show and saw Edmondo Rahme, and internationally acclaimed tenor. He gave quite a performance, from very diverse material. He started with a piece in German. Then switched to the a Man From La Mancha singing “The Impossible Dream”. He continued with many songs, in different languages, and continually tried to get the audience to participate, but his voice really was intimidating to get anyone to join in. He joked at one point that early in his career he would go around and perform for the seniors in old folk homes… and now at this point in his career he goes around to cruise ships and… well he just chuckled at that point as did everyone else. His virtuoso performance went on for over one hour, much longer than the normal forty minutes that most shows run. But he kept us amazed and entertained the whole time.

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