December 22nd and 23rd
Punta Arenas, Chile
Stayed at Sol de Invierno

Dear Obiwan,

OBI, it happened, I WALKED AMONGST PENGUINS! AH! Before I tell you all about that I will quickly tell you that yesterday was a relaxing and a pretttty simple day. After a late wake up and breakfast I headed to the Penguin tour company to book my trip!

I set up my PENGUIN TOUR for 10:00am tomorrow and they warned me “Patagonia weather is very unpredictable so don’t pay now, we will have you pay tomorrow, if the tour isn’t cancelled!” That was very disconcerting, but luckily the weather was beautiful!

After this I went to an outdoor store to buy some WARM pants, and ended up buying snow pants because I don’t have any warm pants and I am terrified to be camping in this weather on the W-Trek in a few days! To be safe, I bought some (expensive 😖) snow pants and also ended up buying some wind resistant gloves, ‘gogirl’ which will be amazing for hiking!, and my first ever Swiss army knife! I also bought a warm hat at a cute small store that actually stays on my head in this crazy Patagonia wind (my current hat almost blew off immediately)!

I also went to a grocery store! Bought some food and had some interesting challenges as a foreigner: I first had trouble understanding the milk isle? The milk was not cold and all of it said ‘semi’ something which sounded like half cream or half fat and I wanted normal milk and nothing just said ‘leche’??? I even asked for help, I spoke all in Spanish! And they also did not know where normal milk was?

After this I was a DISASTER in the line, I did not know I had to get a sticker on my apples, so I had to run out of line to get them weighed and stickered…but that line was long and took a few minutes to get the sticker! Then I ran back…and to my dismay all my soda EXPLODED and so I had to run back AGAIN and get new soda. When I came back to the line I had many angry eyes staring at me, and I understood.

My day ended with me cooking dinner and heading to bed early! I had to have a good night sleep for the PENGUINS!

Day 83: Sunday, December 23rd
Punta Arenas, Chile

Stayed at Sol de Invierno

Penguin day, penguin day, Obi! After making breakfast and chatting with the Aussies I was off to my penguin and sea lion tour! The weather looked clear and beautiful!

The tour is to Magdalena and Marta Islands. Magdalena is where the penguins are and where there is a path for humans to walk!!! Then the Marta island is not walkable, you just drive up close in the boat and look at the sea lions.

I headed into this large boat that looked like it could handle these rough seas. On the boat I sat with a mother and son from Punta Arenas and it was also their first time on this tour!!! Diego had a bird book, binoculars, and a nice camera and was READY for this trip! They were both so nice and we all were SO EXCITED!

But Obi, the first animal we saw was not a penguin…we went out to look at the ocean and I was dying to see a whale. I asked Rodrigo(Khal) back at the hostel, was it possible to see whales on this trip too? And he said not usually but that there are many whales around here!

…but me and Diego went out to look out at the ocean as and I said to Diego, “I heard it’s rare but I want to see a whale so badly!” And then BOOM. I SAW A BIG FIN AND THEN A PUFF OF WATER SPURTS UP INTO THE AIR!!!

FIRST WHALE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE OBIWAN!!! It was so cool and exciting!!!

After this we were on the penguin island! It was surreal! There. Were. Penguins. Everywhere!!!

The guide told us on the boat that we had one hour and told us that it was just baby season but that almost all the penguins were grown up now- BUT HE WAS SO WRONG! THERE WERE SO MANY BABIES!!!

Diego’s mom in the first few minutes showed me 2 baby penguins in their little hole homes with their mom and dad! The guide told us to keep moving…but no way was I moving…it was 2 baby Penguins and their parents, I’m staying. I then saw an American mother and daughter with fancy cameras and pointed out the babies and they hadn’t seen them yet! They also flipped out like I did and all of us just stayed and took a million photos.

The mother told me that she had come years ago to the same place and there were NO BABIES. So this was a BIG DEAL OBIWAN.
After about maybe 20 minutes I forced myself to get up, it was hard, but I had to see the rest of the island! And man, I was so grateful I got up…before I got up I thought these babies were the only ones I would see…but no, I was wrong…there were SO MANY MORE BABY PENGUINS! They would stay in their nesting holes as their mama and papa go to get food and then they honk and honk for food and their parents and always one parent stays! The older penguins make sounds constantly too, they do it to help find each other, they each have a unique voice!

Look!!!:

Hahaha one of my favorite videos below!:

There were also a bunch of Seagull like birds with babies too!

Had another issue with a guide, I was the last person and the end of the trail is at a light house and I was legit, 20 feet from the lighthouse and this guy had a power trip with me, he told me to turn around, now. I said I will, once I go to the lighthouse, and he said “no you won’t, turn around you will make everyone late,” I then told him no, and went. Obi, the conversation took longer than it took me to take the photo and look at the view. Also, I was not the last person, I walked fast back. WE’RE ON AN ISLAND OF PENGUINS why ,here, are you having an inferiority complex?!

Once back on the boat we we’re given coffee, tea, and cookies! Then the boat took us to the sea lion island, you’re not allowed to walk on it so you just get real close!

And then Obi, as if this trip wasn’t already magical enough. We were sitting on the back of the boat watching the penguin island get smaller and smaller and I speaking with this nice Brazilian guy and I told him how we saw whales earlier and I am always searching for whales and am always wishing and hoping to see a whale.

AND THAT MOMENT AS I WAS SPEAKING ABOUT WHALES, WE SAW A WHALE!!! The Brazilian guy turns to me and says “wow, you must be good luck!” Minutes later Diego’s mom spotted another whale and then we saw a few more! You could see their fins and then the POOF’s of water spurting out! It was so incredible, whales are such amazing and magical creatures!

After seeing the whales the boat gave everyone Pisco Sours and I asked the guide and he said he thinks they were ‘6 whales’ or another kind of whale. Diego and his mother were so well prepared and offered us tea and snacks before we docked.

After this amazing day I was invited by Diego and the Brazilian and his girlfriend to go ‘slack rope’ walking…which Obi sounds difficult for people who are inherently clumsy? But I planned to maybe join them.

The day ended with KELSEY ARRIVING FROM PHILLY! I had cooked myself some pasta and cut up some peppers and I had extra and Kelsey ate it and so did this other guy from Israel who was hungry…I never cook for people Obi, you know this, and also I can cook about 3 things…but it actually felt so good to have people eating your food, wow!

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DAY OBIWAN!

Love you so much lamb chop,
Tú Madre,
Carly