Wednesday, January, 9th
Ushuaia
Stayed at Antarctica Hostel

Dear Obiwan,

Wow, today marks the 100th day of my trip! I never thought I would traveling for this long, well I never thought any of this would be happening in the first place.

But it is! And I am SO grateful!

And what a perfect way to mark 100 days of traveling with WALKING WITH PENGUINS OBI!

Today’s entry will be best with pictures!

On the road to the boat to penguin island!

This was a sign in the bathroom 😂

In summary, we took the Piratour which is the ONLY tour company that let’s you WALK ON THE ISLAND, while all other tours are only driving by in boats!

So if you want to WALK WITH PENGUINS- take the Piratour and also, get in advance! It was sold out a few days before when we were there, I can’t imagine how disappointed I would have been, but thanks to Kelsey, we booked this months ago!

We had a nice group on our boat and our tour guide David was great, he took my joke seriously…I asked if I could pet the penguins and he said, “no! And you need to be at least 3 steps away because they like to bite a lot!” Also, there are so many it is likely one might be VERY CLOSE TO YOU.

I have never been more excited for something to bite me in my entire LIFE.

Anywho, we had to take a 1.5 hour minivan to Estancia then took a Zodiac boat to Isla Martillo- the PENGUIN ISLAND.

Finally, we were there! Oh also, just a few days ago THERE WERE KING PENGUINS HERE, they are rare, but it might happen! If not there are 2 breeds of penguins here, the Magellanic- which I saw in Punta Arenas (BUT IT NEVER GETS OLD) and Jentoo penguins- WHICH I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE!

Look at the penguins!!!:

Some facts: there are about 8,000 Magellanic Penguins and about less than 1,000 Jentoo penguins.

They are the CUTEST:

THEY ARE THE FUNNIEST:

And there were BABIES EVERYWHERE! But…more like pre-teen penguins. So many nests! And it takes years for the penguins to shed their baby fur…they can’t go swimming and fish on their own until their swim fur comes in!

Also, it was so beautiful here! Look at the background! The mountains, clouds and sea!:

Eventually, we had to leave. It was tough to leave but, it was so amazing on the island. And just as our guide told us, there are so many sometimes they cross your path, look!:

And you could get so close, it was incredible!

After this we boated to another island where you could pay to get some hot chocolate and chocolate cake…I obviously did.

Then we went to a bird and sea museum! Our tour was led by this young and amazing marine biologist! At this location they are constantly finding incredible bones that wash up on the shore and they slowly put them together!

Unfortunately, the smell of the bones…(which I found out later on the tour was actually smell of FLESH STILL DECOMPOSING) was too strong for me and I had to leave the tour of the museum early. But it was very interesting what I saw!

Lastly, we had a van ride back to the center of town in Ushuaia. But before we got back we stopped to see a famous tree? I forget the significance, but it was a cool tree, look!:

After our amazing day we went out to dinner and I HAD THE BEST FOOD I HAVE HAD YET ON THIS TRIP. It was called plow or slow disk cooking? I don’t know but it was a pepper streak in this AMAZING SAUCE. The best steak YET OF MY LIFE!

Oh and we bumped into our roommate from El Chalten!!! THIS IS THE 3RD TIME WE SAW HER POST EL CHALTEN!

Our evening ended with heading to the Hard Rock Cafe to meet up with Maël, Chris, and Thiago! It was funny going out to a Hard Rock in Ushuaia, but it was with good company.

WOW WHAT AN AMAZING DAY OBI!.

Goodnight my lamb,

Love Tú Madre,

Carly