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The penguins on the Isla Magalena |
We crossed the border from Argentina back into Chile at a tiny
checkpoint in the middle of nowhere and had to get all our luggage off to be
scanned and checked to make sure we weren’t taking any animal products or seeds
into the country, arriving at our hostel, El Sendero in Puerto Natales at about
9:30pm after getting a taxi at the bus station.
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We saw this Argentine flag on entering El Calafate on the way to Puerto Natales. It just looks like the colours of the flag have run into the sky |
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Breakfast at El Sendero, Puerto Natales |
It’s quite a nice but rustic
hostel with plenty of space in the common rooms and an owner, Juan who is a bit
of a character, renting out gear for Torres del Paine trips and running 3
busses to take people there and back – and he makes sure you use his bus and rental
gear! His breakfast was a bit of a sugar experience, two types of cake, a piece
of fruit, a yoghurt with cereal in the corner, fruit juice and tea or coffee.
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A walk in Puerto Natales. 'I see no ships!' |
We weren’t going to Torres del Paine on this occasion as we’ve booked a
night in a tent in the El Chileno refuge in the park at great expense for the
night of 2nd December, since it was fully booked until then. The
idea was that we will go in on the bus on the morning of 2nd, walk
up to the Mirador to see the view of the Torres, then walk back to El Chileno,
stay the night and then walk out the following day. We have therefore booked
into the El Sendero hostel for the 1st and 3rd of
December and, in the meantime will return to Punta Arenas for 5 days just to
pass the time until our booking.
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Art in Puerto Natales? |
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Sunny by with a cold wind and she does suffer with achy ears in the wind! |
We met some interesting people in our 3 nights in Puerto Natales, a ‘50
something’ couple who intend spending 2 years travelling from here in the very
south, right up through South and Central America, through the USA and finish
in Canada, mainly staying in their tent to keep costs down (they are more
adventurous than us!), a couple from Brazil who went into raptures about how
good their country is, gave us their contact details and said they would plan
our trip for us if we go, and another couple who went backpacking in Torres del
Paine park for 5 days without booking anything, something that now you are not
supposed to do. From this year all overnights must be booked and you won’t be
allowed in without proof of booking. However, no-one checked them and they got
in and found the campsites half empty.
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We went for a walk along the front and these two dogs followed us. They ran down this pier and chased the flock of birds |
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In case I don't get a photo of real guanacos! |
We checked online and they are all
reported as full, so we can only do our 1 night, we just don’t have the nerve
to wing it as they did. It seems they haven’t got the booking system properly
sorted yet, but we still don’t want to chance it. Our 1 night will allow us to
see the main view, so hopefully the weather will be OK.
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A perfect day in Puerto Natales - as long as you have a coat on! |
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Jackie copying the athlete sculpture, 'tribute to the wind' or something! |
We returned to our Airbnb room in Punta Arenas, run by Hernaldo for 5
nights on 26th November but, to date, we haven’t seen him! The house
has been full of people we don’t know, all Spanish speaking, but we think they
are probably family, one moving in a load of furniture, another gardening and
washing and someone else we have seen before who lodges in one of the rooms.
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Have to include a photo of a pussy cat every so often |
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The NAO Victoria replica |
We
also had fellow Airbnb guests this time stopping in the other upstairs room.
They were a mother, son and daughter from Santiago on a 5 day holiday and we
managed to hold a conversation with our limited Spanish. On their third night
they had to move to a house a few doors down as the son had only booked 2
nights instead of the 3 he thought he’d booked, however no-one else turned up
that night so we don’t know what happened. We got talking about our stay in
Santiago next week and Felipe, the son told us to use Uber taxis as they are
much cheaper. When I told him we can’t as our UK phone won’t connect here he
went out and got a local SIM card for us, fitted it in our phone and connected
us to Uber all for no cost. They left with hugs and ‘you are like friends to
us’ parting words, such nice people. However, we still don’t know how to use
the Uber app, so not sure if we’ll use it or not.
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Jackie trying out a hammock on the Victoria |
Whilst here we’ve had some good days out. We visited the private
exhibition of the full scale replicas of the Beagle, that carried Captain Fitz
Roy and Charles Darwin on his voyages of discovery, the NAO Victoria that carried
Ferdinand Magellan on the first round the world voyage (actually he didn’t make
it round the world as he died, but the ship made it), the ‘James Caird’
lifeboat that, in 1916 Shackleton modified using parts from the ice bound,
doomed Endurance in order to escape from Elephant Island and make his epic
journey through mountainous seas to mount a rescue for his crew stranded on the
island some months later, plus the ship ‘Ancud’ that was used by Chileans to
claim Patagonia for Chile and build Fort Bulnes in 1840’s.
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On the Victoria |
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The NAO Victoria from the Beagle |
We later visited the
Sara Braun palace, a beautiful building overlooking the Plaza de Armas, built
in the mid 19th century and now a national architectural monument.
Shackleton visited there in 1916 to summon assistance for the successful
Chilean rescue of the crew on Elephant Island and the building and adjoining
hotel now has a ‘Shackleton Bar’ with paintings depicting the crushing by ice
and sinking of the Endurance in Antarctica, the escape in the James Caird and
subsequent rescue.
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The Beagle replica |
Yesterday’s trip was the highlight of our time here and that was a visit
to a penguin colony on Isla Magalena, a small island 30km off the coast of
Punta Arenas, containing between 56,000 and 58,000 couples of the rare
Magellanic Penguins. After visiting lots of agencies round town we picked the
‘Comapa’ company that offer trips three times a week on an old ferry that takes
just over 200 people at a time. We visited their office to find they were sold
out for Tuesday, the only day we could make, but the girl did say that they
sell 200 tickets from this office, but there are usually 20 more available on a
first come first served basis at the port from 2:00pm onwards (the boat sails
at 4pm). After visiting the tourist information office the lady there phoned
the port to find they still had 40 tickets available from there, and she should
know as her son, Edward, is one of the guides on the boat.
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Shackletons 'James Caird' |
We arrived just before
2:00pm, got our tickets, waited for the 4:00pm sailing. Jackie met Edward, who
was expecting us, his mum had phoned him to say two English people would be
turning up. He even offered to run us back to the house afterwards, but we had
to wait until he had finished helping all the old people off! We declined and
caught a collectivo back. But how sweet is that?
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Jackie on board the Ancud |
The island is about a mile in diameter and has a fenced off path round
the outside where close viewing of these inquisitive penguins can be done. They
are completely unafraid of humans and some of them come close to view us, we
wonder whether we’re a human zoo for the penguins to observe! Even with a boat
load of 200 people turning up there is plenty of room and doesn’t feel crowded
or a problem to the penguins and it was an absolute delight. Though we were
first off and kept ahead of the crowd! They are fabulous creatures living in
holes in the ground, some with new born chicks and always fun to watch.
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Jackie propped against the strong wind waiting for the bus |
We had
an hour on the island, which passed very quickly, but we were both quite glad
to get back on the boat as it was so cold and windy! The two hour trip out and
two hours back again was relatively uneventful, we did spend a lot of time looking
out to sea, hoping to see dolphins and whales, which apparently do visit quite
regularly at this time of year, but sadly we didn’t see any, swimming penguins,
many sea birds including huge Skua and three sealions, but no cetaceans. It was
still a great 5 hour trip and we can absolutely recommend it. Have a look at
our ‘Youtube’ video of the trip
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Inside the Sara Braun Palace |
Today is our last day here, as tomorrow we head back to Puerto Natales
and El Sendero for our trip to Torres del Paine. Before we go we have to walk
into town to use the free wifi at the bus station to post this blog and Youtube
video as the wifi here at Hernaldo’s isn’t working. It’s been pretty
intermittent over the last few days, starting when the wind picked (we could
hardly stand up in it!) but has been non-existent for the last couple of days.
Still, at least it’s mostly sunny, just a little bit of rain, but such a cold,
strong wind! Let’s hope the weathers OK for our trip into Torres del Paine!
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A painting showing the crushing of the Endurance in the Shackleton Bar |
We had an evening meal out too, I had warned him of this impending
expense but King Crab (looks like big spider crabs to me) is just not something
we get at home, so having surveyed all the menus we took our choice. A big
serving of King Crab for two to share, beautifully presented and simply eaten
with hot bread, homemade mayonnaise and spicy salsa, and a crisp bottle of
Chilean sauvignon blanc. I was on a charm offensive and managed to get extra
bread and dips before talking to the American guy on the next table. He
appeared to have had the same crab we did for a starter followed by a huge
portion of lamb. He offered us some of his red wine after we’d finished as he
couldn’t drink it all, and then offered some of his lamb as it really wasn’t as
good as he’d hoped. He was probably right, it wasn’t as good as it should have
been here, but compared to lamb on the average British BBQ it was pretty good!
I had a lovely evening, and may have woken with a slightly dull head, but that
was soon blown away the next morning!
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Our King Crab meal |
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Painting showing Shackleton leaving his crew on Elephant Island to go to get help |
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The Sara Braun Palace |
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How does this work? We saw this pool table in the Sara Braun Palace, but we've seen others like is as well. There are no pockets for the balls to drop down. Perhaps it isn't a pool table at all |
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On the boat to penguin island! |
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The island in sight |
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Penguins everywhere! |
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This little guy creeps along behind Jackie while her back is turned |
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Mum with two babies peeking over her back |
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Another mum keeping her baby warm |
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Multi-tiered living! |
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An intimate moment between penguins |
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A bit out of sequence this one, but this is Jackie filling in the immigration forms before getting on the bus at El Chalten in Argentina, for crossing the border into Chile |
2 comments:
Bless those gorgeous penguins- I want one! X
Looks so lovely. Penguins are cute! Xx
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