King Penguin Encounter

Day 1: Cross Strait of Magellan; Useless Bay (Bahía Inutil); Hotel in Porvenir


We'll start our journey with a private transfer from your hotel to the ferry dock at the north of Punta Arenas. At around 9am we'll begin our 2-hr crossing of the mythic waters of the Strait of Magellan; these world-famous seaways are very rich in exploration history. Magellan, Drake, Cavendish, Bougainville, Fitz Roy and Darwin, among several other sailors and explorers, surveyed this region, often in extremely harsh and dangerous conditions.

We'll see an interesting array of seabirds, including black-browed albatross, southern giant petrel, southern fulmar, imperial cormorant, dolphin gull and South American tern. We're also highly likely to see interesting marine mammals such as pods of Peale's dolphin and inquisitive South American sea lions.

As soon as we land you will notice that the landscape on this part of Tierra del Fuego is dominated by flat wind-swept steppes, with tussock grasses and low shrubs, and interspersed with rolling hills. After meeting our local guide and driver, we'll stop at the town of Porvenir, visiting a pioneer home, our lovely and cozy hotel, Hosteria Yendegaia. Here we'll have coffee or tea with snacks and will have the opportunity to relax for a short while.


From here we'll drive for approximately 2hrs along the shore of Useless Bay where we can expect to see a huge variety of wildlife including guanaco, southern grey fox, the ubiquitous upland goose, Chilean flamingo and a wide diversity of waterfowl and shorebirds. At sea we might see albatrosses, petrels, gulls and skuas patrolling the choppy waters of the bay.


At King Penguin Park we'll have a short introduction on how best to visit and approach the king penguins. This is a private nature reserve which aims to preserve the small numbers of king penguins that visit the area and even remain here year-round, taking advantage of the excellent feeding opportunities in the surrounding seas. We'll have plenty of opportunity to observe and photograph the penguins from a reasonable distance – the maximum approach distance will be given by the guide and must be respected at all times during your visit.


Meals: Picnic lunch, dinner
Accommodation: Hosteria Yendegaia or similar, in Porvenir

Day 2: Stromatolite Park; Laguna de Los Cisnes Nature Reserve; Punta Arenas

After breakfast, we'll head out to Stromatolite Park. The landscape of this park looks like it dates from the very early days of out planet. We'll also visit the Laguna de Los Cisnes Nature Reserve to spot a wide variety of land and water birds in the lagoons. There might also be cururos, foxes and guanacos in sight.

After lunch we'll board the ferry and sail back across the Strait of Magellan to Punta Arenas.

Meals: Breakfast, picnic lunch