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The most southern point of our trip is Punta Arenas and Tierra del Fuego. Punta Arenas is a port town, but like a few of them in Chile it has had a down turn in traffic and profit. This would be the place where we arrived and the wind hurt my face...with the potential of 200km winds our kayaking ideas were dashed. The weather can turn and we often experienced high winds needing a toque and mitts.
Our days in Punta Arenas will filled with museums, and tours to see the two types of penguins in the area...the Magellan and the King penguins. The Magellan named after the explorer it seems, return to the island annually for the mating season. They are very familiar with the humans that arrive to walk through their space and gawk at them. They waddle across the pathways, honk and flap their wings...while they won’t grow to be very large they definitely have a presence. There are approximately 50 000 couples on the island, however all of the babes were safely tucked in their nests, as it was early in their development and there are predatory birds that lurk along the shore line. The King penguins are found on Tierra del Fuego and they are a colony that call the island home. There were just over a hundred along the shores of the bay where you the find a makeshift research/visitors center. The government of Chile mandates “responsible research” and there were barriers/benches approximately 15m away from the inlet, and ocean shoreline. The barriers helped as a wind shield for observation and taking pictures. The staff explained that the colony has had some minimal growth over the years, as they experience some challenges with whales and sea lions.
The history in this area of Chile is very interesting with expeditions to the Antartica, the discovery of the Strait of Magellan, and the various conflicts over territory between Argentina and Chile. The names Arturo Prat, Manual Montt, Benjamin O’Higgins, Ernest Shackleton, and Manual Bulnes followed us along our route...and reoccurred through street signs, and even bars. The furthest south we travelled was Tierra del Fuego and the stories of the Selk’nam peoples. There were many families on the island, and the story goes that if communication was needed (an attack, a whale washing up on shore etc...) across the open spaces they threw more wood on the fire, thus creating smoke to signal for attention. When Magellan discovered the islands the name Tierra del Fuego (a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese for smoke/fire) was created.
In looking at our travlels over the last 3 months...it is obvious that we have only scratched the surface of South America. So we may be back!
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