Punta Arenas & Tierra del Fuego

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Our flight from Santiago (via 10hrs in Puerto Montt airport!) landed after midnight in Punta Arenas so we ventured out into the cold of Patagonia for the first time for a very short time before quickly retreating to bed. Despite being the middle of summer, people were rugged up as though it was winter in Tasmania! We enjoyed hearty hot breakfast from our hostel Hostal 53 Sur with other guests from all over the Americas before we stepped out to collect our campervan.
Paul had made the road trip suggestion very early on in our planning of this trip but we didn't follow through on it after discussing the various pitfalls including our lack of language if we were to get lost or have mechanical issues. However, wanting a bit of a change of routine from our long, public bus rides and hearing of the famed Route 40 road trip in Argentina we decided we'd go for it. We chose Wicked Campers as they're a reputable international company and Courtney had used them before in the UK so we knew roughly what to expect, plus with a bed and basic cooking facilities included it would give us so much more freedom to go and sleep wherever we wanted.
The "Ecovan", with a giant bee on one side and a whale on the other side, was quickly renamed Billy and stocked with food and other supplies for the next 5 weeks on the road. We left Punta Arenas and aimed for the ferry crossing to Tierra del Fuego, the end of the world, and a newly discovered colony of King Penguins near the small town of Porvenir. We arrived at the King Penguin Park the next morning and we a bit surprised to see that the setup was literally a tin shed 50metres away for the nesting penguins and a few benches just across from the colonies. The penguins were adorable with a bunch of newborn chicks and many nesting eggs on their feet. We learnt that this was the only known king penguin colony outside of Antarctica and had only been discovered a couple of years ago so this was the first steps to ensure the penguins were safe and protected. It was great to be a small part of the conservation effort and we hope they continue to expand the protected area to give the penguins a safe place to raise their very cute chicks!
The cold of the wind of Tierra del Fuego was brutal so that afternoon we headed for Porvenir, the largest town in the Chilean side of the island (pop 5000 people) and sat down for an amazing meal at the Croatian Club. The next morning we headed to the lookout on the headland and had breakfast looking south towards the Beagle channel and a set of impressive mountains and glaciers in the distance then head north again to the ferry and towards Puerto Natales.

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