Sunday, November 19, 2006

Still Chilly in Chile

After our Patagonian adventure we still had a little time in Southern Chile to enjoy the windeswept towns of Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. Punta Arenas is located right on the Straight of Magellan and much of the city is dedicated to this history. We visited the square, several museums, drank lots of hot beverages and Austral beer to stay warm and visited the Magellanic penguins . A colony of over 5000 penguins live near the city of Punta Arenas part of the year. The other part of the year they live in Brazil. On the way we saw the Nandu, a rare ostrich like bird discovered by Darwin himself after he ate one and realized it was a new species. We spent a little over an hour watching the antics of the penguins as they crawled out of the sea after a day of hunting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to show Chris the pictures so he can be as stinking jealous as I am right now sitting at my desk at work. Penguins AND hiking all over Patagonia!!! At least I only have 1 year, eight months and 12 days until retirement. Then we can join the ranks of gypsies and see the rest of the world. Love the stories--keep writing. Becky and Chris

David G. said...

Mark:

Great to finally figure out how to hear of you travels. Sounds like a blast! I too am close to retirement and have another very lucrative engineering offering in Australia. But, in the mean time I've been bitten by the sailing bug - simply by reading a book!!! Now I'm interested in sailing lessons so I can get lots of experience so that when I retire I can buy my boat (I think it will have to be a wooden one - 40 to 50 ft.) and sail to Australia, where I'll make obscene money. Any suggestions as to sailing schools, probably in SoCal most likely?