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| Map showing Punta Arenas, Chile Photo: PD |
It is also the most populous southernmost city in
Chile and in the Americas, with close to 150,000. Punta Arenas records an average temperature of 52
degrees during January, the hottest month, and 36 degrees in June, the coldest month.
The Royal Princess anchored alongside Punta Arenas on 3/1/2019 at 8am and the high temperature
for the day would reach 52 degrees.
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| Royal Princess |
Punta Arenas was originally established by the Chilean
government in 1848 as a small penal colony and a disciplinary station for military personnel
with "problematic" behavior issues.
It is located 881 miles from the coast of Antarctica.
In December 1851, a prison mutiny resulted in the murder of Punta Arenas Governor Muñoz
Gamero and led to the destruction of the church and the hospital. A second
mutiny in 1877 further led to the destruction of a large part of the town along with
the murder of many civilians.
The Punta Arenas harbor was considered one of the
most important in Chile prior to the construction of the Panama Canal. It was used as a coaling station for steamships transiting between the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. Today it is mostly recognized
for tourism from an ever increasing cruise market, as well as being a launching
point for scientific expeditions.
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| MS Midnatsol |
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| Discovery Research vessel |
In 2011 the Nao Victoria Museum opened to the public. Privately owned,
the museum features a full-size replica of Ferdinand Magellan's Nao Victoria, the first ship to ever circumnavigate the world.
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| Nao Victoria |
You
can certainly find other tourist options available in Punta Arenas but my sights were set on tracking down penguins.
I pre-arranged a shore excursion through Solo Expeditions
Punta
Arenas is a tender port meaning that the Royal Princess anchors off shore
and requires you to take small tenders to the pier. Our group of 18 disembarked the ship at 8:45am and
arrived at the pier at 9:30am. Most
places here will accept U.S. dollars, some Euros and credit cards are
widely accepted.
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| Tender arrival into Punta Arenas, Chile |
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| Distance from the tender to the tourist center |
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| Approaching the visitor center |
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| In front of the visitor center |
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| Local sight looking for my Solo Expedition representative |
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| Before leaving the pier |
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| Pathway out of the pier |
It
took another 20 minutes before I finally located our Solo
Expeditions representative. We then boarded
a small van and headed to the Solo Expeditions downtown office to make payment. It was now close to 10am.
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| Solo Expedition office in downtown Punta Arenas, Chile |
I found the office very small and extremely crowded. There was only 1 person working behind a
very small desk in the corner. She was handling everything without the convenience of a computer. I found it necessary to push my way through the crowd
to even get to her. On inquiry I discovered that most people were standing around waiting to see if there would be any ‘no-shows’ or cancellations
as everything was sold out for the day. Solo
Expeditions does not require payment upfront. It is not uncommon for the
excursion to be cancelled due to inclement weather. I found it very fortunate to be graced with a high
temperature of 52 degrees and no rain on the day of my arrival.
Solo
Expeditions policy required each person in my group to go inside the office and pay. Payment could be made in Chilean Pesos or via
credit card. The cost of the 4.5 hour
excursion was $95 per person. This
process would take another 30 minutes.
Once all payments had been processed we
were instructed to follow a representative out to a waiting van where our group of 18 were combined
by others, making our total count about 30 by the time we were ready to leave. We pulled out of town at 10:30am for our
drive north to the Solo Expedition private pier. The trip would take 30 minutes, dropping us at the private boat dock at 11am.
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| Solo Expedition private boat dock north of Punta Arenas |
Solo
Expeditions maintains a fleet of 4 boats ranging in size from 18-47 passengers. When I initially contacted Solo Expeditions I
reserved the Isla Magdalena Speedboat. With a maximum capacity of 18 it is equipped with 2 Yamaha de 200 HP
engines and can attain a speed of 25 knots.
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| Isla Magdalena 18 passenger boat |
Unfortunately, days before arriving into Puerta Arenas I received an email advising
that the Isla Magdalena Speedboat had mechanical issues and could not be fixed
in time for our arrival. I was given 2
options – move our party of 18 to the larger Isla Tierra del Fuego boat that
accommodates 47, or cancel our reservation.
Not wanting to miss the penguin experience I opted to move the entire group to the
larger vessel.
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| Isla Tierra del Fuego 47 passenger boat |
On
arrival at the Solo Expedition Pier we were required to don a life vest before being
allowed to board.
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| Putting on our life jackets |
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| Inside the boat |
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| Friends Jon Garth Swim and Marci Inman at the back of the boat |
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| Jon Garth Swim and Jim Oldham enjoying the fresh air |
We
would reach Magdalena Island, our first stop, in 45 minutes. It is difficult to express my feelings are I
stepped onto the island. I was
overwhelmed with the distinctiveness of it all.
I found it so far beyond my wildest expectations. The island allows you to interact with more than 150,000 Magellan penguins that inhabit the island each year.
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| Approaching Magdalena Island |
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| On the island of Magdalena |
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| On the island with my cute little friends behind me |
You are encouraged to stay on a well-groomed designated
path as you slowly make your way around the island admiring these magnificent creatures. Starting to your left you will slowly wend
your way through the Magellan penguin colony as you head up to a lighthouse located at the
top of the island. Then its downhill as
you make your way back to the dock. They allocate 1 hour for this spectacular
experience.
Enjoy hot chocolate and cookies as you step back
onto the boat and settle in for the short trip over to Marta Island.
Marta Island is home to more than 1000 Sea lions,
Cormorants, Skuas and Sea elephants. Although
not allowed to step onto the island, the boat eases close to shore, affording
an excellent view of the sea lion colony.
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| Sea lions |
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| Cormorants |
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| Skus |
Time seemed to stand still and before I knew it we were heading back to the mainland.
As we approached the pier it was announced that we would be unable to
dock due to low tides. The decision was made
to move everyone to one of their smaller boats, the Isla Isabel. The smaller boat had a maximum capacity of 33
so it would take 2 trips to relay us all ashore.
Once the smaller boat had pulled up next to us, 33 of the 47 passengers
were transferred over and headed to the pier.
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| Isla Isabel for transporting smaller groups |
Myself
and 13 others opted to wait for the second trip of the rescue boat. As we bobbed around in the water, Pisco sour and
other unknown alcoholic beverages poured freely as we patiently waited for our ride. I seem to have lost track of time during the
wait but by the time the rescue boat arrived for the remaining 13 we were happily
singing rounds of the Irish Rovers “Drunken Sailor”, led by good friend Jon Garth Swim.
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| I wasn't really steering the boat |
Finally
the remaining 13 maneuvered over to the rescue boat and headed to
shore. Arriving safe and sound we returned
our life jackets, made our way to an awaiting bus and another 30 minute
ride. Originally scheduled to return to
the ship at 3:30pm, we found ourselves dockside at 4:45pm with the Royal Princess scheduled to set sail from Punta Arenas at 8:00pm.
The
day proved to be a great adventure and one that will be remembered for years to come.
Absolutely loving your blogs from this trip. Definitely on my to do list now.
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