How to Best Experience Awesome Penguins in the Wild
As long as I can remember, I wanted to see penguins up close and personal 🙂
And last February, we did just that on a Princess South-America cruise, leaving from Buenos Aires and ending in Santiago, Chili.
I don’t particularly like cities anymore, I much prefer nature and animals. So this cruise for me was really about seeing penguins. It’s been on my bucket list like forever!
We had booked 3 tours at different ports and they each had their own ‘style’.
Punta Tumbo
The first place was in a kind of park where you had to walk on the trail and they were on each side of us. They were Gentoo penguins. They make their nest in the ground in less than a minute.
Falkland Island
The second tour was the best of all 3. It was on Falkland Island and it was in a 4×4 landrover, with our guide/driver, us and another couple. This island is not big and most everyone lives in Port Stanley where our ship was docked. We had to wait for a few of the groups to fill up because we were going in a ‘caravan style’ – we soon found out why!
We would be in this landrover for 2 hours and 90 minutes of this was going to be on rough terrain, through ditches, climbing hills, no roads, so a very bumpy ride, but so much fun and an experience in itself. Our destination was Volunteer Point where we could see the King Penguins, the second largest after the Emperor Penguins.
On the Way
We are Here
Babies
There are thousands of penguins here, it’s by the beach, with lots of space for them. There was the ‘nursery’ where adults were forming a circle and some had an egg in their pouch, some had babies of different ages. They constantly make a noise so that parents can find their babies. Unbelievable sight.
My husband, the penguin whisperer
I took so many pictures and some videos (my first time with my new camera) and this one I think is the best one, except it was very windy and I was walking along, so it’s a bit bumpy.
So Many of Them
We were there for about 1 1/2 hour, walking and taking it all in. It was a magical and extraordinary experience, more than I expected.
Penguin Island
Yep, that’s what it’s called because only penguins live here, no humans. You have to get there by zodiac, about a 10 minute ride. The driver leaves you there with a guide and comes back about 45 minutes later. You just walk along the path.
I’m so lucky we were able to this.
How about you, do you have items on your bucket list you were able to cross off?
That’s crazy. I know nothing about how penguins would naturally interact with humans. What were they like? How many humans do they see a year?
They seem so oblivious to you all.
I know, really crazy. On Falkland Island, We were told to not get too close, and as you can see, they didn’t pay much attention to us. Some, like the little guy beside my husband’s feet, seemed curious. And around the nursery there were rocks forming a circle and we all respected to stay outside the circle. They must see hundreds of people every year. On Falkland Island, I would guess most arrive by cruise ship and since it’s a 2 hour there and 2 hour back and pretty rough ride, not everyone will take the time to do this tour. On Penguin Island, again since you get there by zodiac which only has room for about 12-15 people and I think they were only 2 departures a day and can’t remember if it was every day, so still a lot of people. But there too we had a guide with us and we had to stay all together and follow him and not scream or talk loud. It was quite the experience.
Oh my goodness this is amazing!! Such fun. I love animals of all kinds and this would be a beautiful experience!!
Yes Julie it was amazing, I would do it all over again, except for flying all the way there LOL it was a very long trip, but walking with the penguins made it so worthwhile.
Wow! What a fun adventure! Penguins are so stinkin’ cute! I’m a huge animal lover.
Here’s a fun trivia question: If a polar bear is the most vicious animal on earth and will eat anything, why will a polar bear never eat a penguin?
The answers you will get are hilarious. Considering advertisements have frequently grouped penguins and polar bears together it’s even funnier that people assume they live together.
I live in Alaska. We have polar bears. I’ve never seen one except for at the zoo. Thankfully. Back when it was legal to hunt polar bears, the way they were hunted was by leaving a scent and moving in a circle until the bear caught the scent. Basically, the polar bear would become the hunter and begin to track the man. Kind of scary to think about.
The answer to the trivia question is that a polar bear will never eat a penguin because he can’t. They aren’t even in the same geographical regions.
The answers that people give can really be funny. Try it some time.
Thank you for sharing with us at Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
Olivia- Co-hostess
Reinvented Collection
Thanks Olivia for providing some insights into polar bears. Wow! that is scary how the polar bear becomes the hunter, but then again, I will never go close to a polar bear like I did with the penguins LOL And you’re right I should definitely ask this trivia question and see what people say. And thank you for hosting this fun Blog Hop. Will come back for sure. 🙂
Thank you, Lise! Your photo’s are amazing! Who did you book through for this excursion? I plan on doing a lot of cruising to my bucket list destination in 18 months when we retire. I so want to do this. Like you, I don’t care for the big city tours. I prefer going out in the wild.
Hi Susan, thank you 🙂 I absolutely loved that cruise around South America, we went to 3 different places to walk with penguins…I was like a kid in a candy store!
We booked it directly with the gentleman who was our guide. I’m going to dig out the info and copy it here and email it to you also.
You should add to your bucket list Galapagos also, that was not your regular kind of cruise, but an expedition really. It was amazing. I will be writing a post on it soon. But if you want more info, just contact me via my contact form.
For those interested in more info about the excursion to Volunteer Point, Port Stanley, where the King Penguins are, we booked it directly with Patrick Watts and this is his email pwatts at horizon.co.fk (replace at by the at sign) Hope you get a chance to see them. 🙂