Punta Arenas – nothing much without its penguins.
Down at the very bottom of Chile; the toenail of South America, is a city called Punta Arenas – the first of many places that an ignorant English couple with limited Spanish speaking abilities will fail to pronounce correctly. Punta Arenas is too big to be considered authentic, too small to be of any real importance, but just about right for a colony of Magellanic penguins to call their home for half the year. The city may not be much more than an Antarctic waiting room, but Isla Magdalena has about 56,000 tourist attractions.
The penguins are just a 2 hour boat journey away, and worth the inevitable gales that wage war with your balance. Other than that, Punta Arenas is just a place to cool down before heading up to Puerto Natales, or down again to Ushuaia. Some come here to board a cruise ship to Antarctica, but only those who have the readies (we didn’t). The world stops here, and if your lucky enough to get off then there’s more than just one island of black and white waddlers, there’s a whole bloody continent of pingüinos!
"Cute and cuddly, boys. Cute and cuddly!"
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