Walking with penguins | a dream come true

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

The others in our caravan behind us

Makeshift bridge

We are Here

Here they are…woohoo!

King Penguin, beautiful colors

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.

In front of the nursery

King Penguin egg

Baby King Penguin

He’s shy 🙂

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

King Penguin at the beach

Curious Little Penguin

Penguins and Me Happy

Pierre and his new friend

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.

Penguin Island

CouCou – hi there

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?