“Penguins. Joyous, frolicking, waddling, cute and cuddly life.” – Madagascar (the movie)

22 miles off the coast of Chile in the Strait of Magellan sits Isla Magdalena. Over 150,000 Magellanic Penguins call this island home for their breeding season each year. Penguins mate for life, so in September the males come back to the island from Brazil to find the previous year’s nest and make sure it’s up to par before their mate arrives. Little penguins hatch in January and by February are molting and leaving the island for Brazil. The adults hang around a little longer and leave around April.

We got to Magdalena on a gorgeous day and hurried to the front of the boat so we could be the first off. To protect the island, we have to stay on a marked path, but the penguins don’t care about paths! They are EVERYWHERE. They waddled in front of us, stood at their nest and stared at us, and just went about their business swimming and napping like we weren’t even there. We even saw a few baby penguins still in their molt (it’s not their best look, but they didn’t seem bothered). The path ends at an old lighthouse, so we stood there for a while and enjoyed the view of the Strait and the thousands of adorable fat “pingüinos” (Spanish for penguin :-)) living life in this little piece of paradise.

–Erika