I’m really happy on water, on boats, near water and even near boats, so getting on a tour boat designed to take folks through the spectacular Beagle Channel, Straits of Magellan  and in the fjords of South America was an absolute delight for me.

For four days and nights we cruised these pristine waterways, enjoying speakers and social time, drinking in the views, listening to lectures from both the boat staff and our fabulous Nat Geo lecturer and, best of all, getting off the boat for excursions.

Even though it was summer in S.A. we layered up with long underwear, warm clothes, rain gear and our orange life jackets to descend to the deck for disembarking on zodiacs for these adventures.

The crew organized people by language so that German speakers would be together, Spanish, English, etc. I suppose if a zodiac capsized it would be best to be with someone who speaks your language, huh?

We had to check in and off the boat —a way of counting noses—before loading the zodiacs and zipping to our destinations.

So, where did we go and what did we see in this remote and distant land?

Wulaia Bay

One day we disembarked in Wulaia Bay. No tourist shops there. Hah. Our first visual was of an old building where “Darwin once slept.” Yep, they are obsessed with Charles Darwin, the originator of the evolutionary theory. While he is often most cited for having spent several months in the Galapagos, actually his theories were well grounded in this part of the world. The scientist traveled, studied and explored in S. A. for a couple of years.

Interestingly, our guide shared this idea. Often when we travel we ask, “Who are we? Are we religions or nation states?” Darwin asked, “Where do we come from?”

After learning about the building we headed up on a gorgeous hike. Now, hiking uphill on uneven terrain is a challenge for me so I had to pay attention to where each foot was landing so instead of taking pictures I wisely focused on the hike. The scene at the top was well worth the huffing and puffing. Here’s what we saw.

I slept well that night.

Aguila Glacier Visit

The next day our destination was a glacier. This is actually my fifth glacier experience (Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Norway and Svalbard). This one was smaller and less dramatic than some of the others.

It was fantastic though. The solitary walk along the coastline to get to it, the emergence of a rainbow and its reflections, the intense blue of the glacier and a walk into the Virgin forest made for a spectacular time.

There are 1600 glaciers in the Tierra Del Fuego. We often saw them when the boat was cruising.

Magellanic Penquins

The last excursion was near Punta Arenas on Magdalena Island to see the penguins. These funny little creatures come here to molt their feathers and to have their babies. We could see them standing by their homes, little holes in the ground and meandering around with each other.

My favorite part however, was seeing the black and white little guys stick their heads into the air and screech their distinctive singsongy calls. We were told that each one has a  sound known only to its mate.

For another post on penguins go to Kate’s blog post about penguins. . She saw them last winter in Antartica.