Well we’re in Punta Arenas (far better sounding than its English translation of ‘Sandy Point’) the most southerly mainland city in the world: still in Chile and our last stop in this fabulous country. It is located 53 degrees South on the Northern side of the Straits of Magellan.
Punta Arenas was established in the mid-1800s A memorial to Magellan stands in the town centre and the legend goes that if you kiss the foot of statue you will return to Patagonia.
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| Kissing the foot of the Magellan Monument to return to Patagonia |
Patagonia as we have been told often was named after the original inhabitants who were supposedly giants but turned out to be larger than average, but not gigantic people who used skins to wrap around their feet to keep them warm, but also left rather large tracks.
The Punta Arenas area is also home to two penguin colonies: Isla Magdalena (we’ll see these guys in Argentina) and Otway Sound (Seno Otway) – the latter we were lucky enough to visit.
These guys are soooooo cute! They migrate between this area as their breeding ground – the chicks have been hatched at this time of year - and their winter home is the west coast of South America.
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| Mum and Dad looking after each other |
These penguins are about 30 cms in height and we could get really close to them in their natural habitat – they honk a bit like geese!
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| This cheeky chappie was close enough to touch |
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| The single men's quarters |
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| Time to find dinner |
Great Job!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat pics. Really cute penguins!
ReplyDeleteOnly 53 degrees south - makes you realize how much more of the world's landmass is located in the northern hemisphere doesn't it! After all, 53 degrees is scarcely an extreme latitude - hardly further from the equator than London, let alone major cities like Helsinki around 60N and places like Barrow, AK at 72N. And the other southerly continents (Africa and Australia) finish even sooner, in the low 40s I guess.
ReplyDeleteInteresting linguistic thing re Punta Arenas - I always try and work out what those Spanish place names mean - obviously Punta = Point. The Arenas bit you'd think might have something to do with stadiums or arenas, and in a way it does. Turns out the English word 'Arena' originates from the Latin word for sand, which they'd spread in the Coliseum (and other 'arenas') to soak up the blood.