Feb 6th , 2020 Day 34 of 128

Today we woke up in Punta Arenas, Chile.  After missing our opportunity to be up close and personal with the penguins in the Falkland Islands, today was the day we got our chance.  Chilean immigration is very strict.  We had to complete an immigration form last night and we had to carry it with us while we are in the country.  We were also not allowed to take any kind of food off the ship at all. If you got caught, there was a $300 fine on the spot.  When we got off the ship there was a dog sniffing all of our backpacks and us.  So because we added our penguin excursion this afternoon, we still kept our morning excursion as well.  This was a first for me but the timing worked out. We learned all about Magellan’s Discovery today.  We saw a replica of the Victoria ship and got to climb in and around it.  There was a great beach here and Megan, Mom and I took great delight in collecting a large amount of sea glass to bring home.  We all got a chance to touch the water from the Straights of Magellan as well.  

Personal story: my first walk on the beach at home after Don passed away I found a very tiny piece of green sea glass.  It was Don favorite color and I asked him if that was supposed to be a sign from him that he was with me?  Not 10 seconds later I found a very large piece of green sea glass and told him I got the message.  Today, the beach was covered in green sea glass.  We knew he was there with us.

Next we went to the Maggiorino Borgatello Museum.  It reminded me of the natural history museum with a lot of information on the flora and fauna of Chile and a lot of information on the indigenous people who lived here when the settlers came.  Last, we went to the Cerro la Cruz viewpoint to get a great panoramic view of Punta Arenas.  We were back on the ship at 12:30 giving us time to grab a quick lunch and then meet for our second excursion at 1:15pm.  We took a short bus ride to the other pier in town and we board a beautiful ship for an hour-long trip to Magdellena Island.  There we got to be close and personal with 16 thousand pairs of mated Magellanic penguins.  It was a sight to behold.  It is mating season so there were many molting baby penguins here.  There live underground in burrows and return to the same burrow every year to have their babies.  The penguins mate for life and completely share the responsibility of raising the chick until they teach it to swim and hunt and off it goes.  Good parenting!!  On the way back to port we had the opportunity to see some dolphins and a Sei whale.  We made it back on the ship just in time for dinner.  Everyone is exhausted from our long day.  It was time for showers and now bedtime.  But, you all needed to see all the gloriousness that I saw today, so take a moment and truly enjoy these amazing photos.  It was definitely a day for the record books.  Sending my love for sweet dreams with a very full heart. Debra.