Day 31 of UWC
January 9, 2024
Puerto Madryn, Argentina
We arrived in Puerto Madryn, Argentina early in the morning. Small and quiet city in southern part of Patagonia.
We got on a bus at 8am. and went to Punta Tombo. 2.5 hour drive to the nature reserve.
Punta Tombo is a peninsula into the Atlantic Ocean where there is a large colony of Magellanic penguins -
the largest rookery in Argentina.
We were lucky to be able to visit during breading season. We saw many young chicks wandering around undisturbed, not afraid of people. Visitors can stroll among the largest penguin colony outside of Antarctica (about one million penguins come every year for mating season). That was the first time ever I saw penguins in their natural habitat, not in the ZOO or Aquarium. The coolest thing ever. I didn’t want to leave.
Captain Stig announced in the morning that we will be changing our itinerary due to high speed winds and large waves coming up in the next 5-7 days.
Instead of going to Port Stanley, Falkland Islands on January 11th and then Antarctica we will now go first to Antartica for the next 5 days and then to Port Stanley, Falkland Islands on January 15th. The winds should die down a bit by then.
After we returned to the ship we listened to some Polish ballads played by Polish guitarist Wojciech, in Schooner Bar over delicious Long Island cocktails.
We had lovely dinner with friends in MDR. Went to see the comedian show in the theater. Met another Polish couple in the casino, and spend the rest of the evening with them at the bar in casino.
Tomorrow day at sea.
