REGION: South Patagonia
ACTIVITY LEVEL: 1 (Easy)
DURATION: 4 hrs.
MIN. / MAX. PEOPLE: 2 – 15 people. Larger groups with advance booking.
SEASON: October to March.
ITINERARY:
INCLUDED: Professional local tour guide (with First Aid Accreditation), mobile phone, Penguin Colony fee and private transport.
NOT INCLUDED: Travel insurance, personal equipment, lunch, tips or anything not listed in the program.
GUEST PROVIDES: Comfortable warm clothes appropriate to the activity and for a cold, windy day.
TOUR OPERATED BY: Patagonia SouthernLand Expeditions staff

Depart from your Punta Arenas hotel or pier for a 37-mile drive to visit the Magellanic penguin colony on Otway Sound. On the journey to the colony (which is on a mostly unpaved road), you may encounter a variety of birds such as caiquenes (upland geese), skuas, terns, oystercatchers and Chilean flamingos, as well as ñandúes (lesser rheas) and foxes. We pass Cabo Negro (Cape Black), Kon Aiken (one of the biggest coal mines in Chile), and vast sheep estancias.

To reach the actual nests and beaches, where the penguins live, requires a walk approximately three quarters of a mile, each way, on unpaved trails. At the beach observation platform, you can watch the penguins as they waddle to and from the ocean. From the trails and observation towers, you can also observe them scurrying into their nests in the windswept grasslands.

The best time to watch hundreds of Magellanic penguins is late afternoon as they are returning from the day’s fishing at sea, from October to March when the penguins come together to nest and raise their young in Otway Sound.

Penguins normally live 25-30 years and always come back to the place where they were born for the mating season. They usually have 1 or 2 offspring in which both the male and female penguins take turns to sit on the eggs and to feed the little ones.

Return to Punta Arenas and your hotel or pier.

Note: It can be quite cold and windy even in our summer! It is essential that you wear warm, layered clothing (a warm jacket, cap, scarf, and gloves are recommended) in order to fully enjoy and participate in this excursion; also, raincoat, sunglasses, hat, and sun protection, as needed.