Penguins!!

I have SO many things to share with you, lovely reader. First and foremost, I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas and New Year. I know mine was pretty great. My family and our family friends (who might as well be family) came down to Chile for the holidays and it was the best gift I could've asked for! We spent Christmas in Santiago (not exactly cozy, but fine) before heading south to Patagonia where we rang in the new year. After a week down south we headed to Valpo for a few days in the sun before everyone headed off to various locations (except for my little sister who is staying here for a while--I'd be inconsolably sad if she had left too). Between two families of four (so 8 people) we are spread across the U.S. in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, Boston, Ohio, and Philadelphia... so it's pretty great we were all able to be in Chile together.

While down South we stayed in Punta Arrenas for two days so we could go to Isla Magdalena to see the PENGUINS! It was so cool! It's a relatively small island with an estimated 200,000 penguins nesting on it. We took a ferry to the island where we walked around in the cold (don't let the pictures fool you... it may have been sunny but it was possibly one of the windiest places I've ever been) for an hour to look at Penguins. It was definitely worth it... probably a highlight of the trip for me!

So without further ado, I present the penguins:

The first sighting from the boat!

Dapper fellow.

Hanging in the nest.

Mama and baby (the babies are furry!)

Me and my new best friend (he's not looking at the camera... he was itchy).

The unibomber in a field of penguins! Just kidding... that's my dad.

Cheeky.

This guys was making crazy squawking sounds... I'm not sure why but you can tell he's sort of screaming at the sky.

"I'm important."

Parent + 2 children... awww.

"We are late for the opening night of the opera!"

Grooming.

Seagull chick!

"Whatchu lookin at?"

Clearly he had important things going on...

So those are the penguins... they were seriously awesome! They aren't afraid of humans and you can get really close. They also walk across the paths that us humans are supposed to stay on so you can get some pretty up close pics. 

Don't go away... tomorrow I'll show you Puerto Natales!

XX

A