The first thing we did on our first full day here was hit up a tourism agency like a couple of complete tools. We thought it was just an information center, but definitely not. We did figure out that there's only one way onto the big penguin colony around here, and it's through a private tour company. The reason is because it's actually on privately owned land, and they have a deal with this one particular company. The whole story behind the land is actually pretty interesting, check it out here.
The trip wasn't that cheap (about $140 per person with the crappy exchange rate since I had to use my credit card), but since it was the only way on the island, we figured "fuck it, why not" and pulled the trigger. A lot of these tours might raise the question "is it worth it" and the thing is, unless you're from here, they generally are.
The bus ride over there was about 90 minutes, and we had two guides giving us a quick history lesson on Ushuaia and Estancia Harberton along the way. Once we got there, we split into two groups, since they don't want too huge of a group of people on the island at once. We were in the second group. There's a pretty huge marine animal research facility on the property, and we did a tour of some of the skeleton specimens they had there. All of which were found in Tierra del Fuego. There's a current that goes clockwise around Antarctica, and Tierra del Fuego is the only land that exists in this particular current, so all kinds of good stuff washes up.
After the tour, we all hop onto a small boat, ride through the Beagle channel, and land on the island.
This is our transportation to penguin island (not the real name).
On the boat.
This is what I look like most of the time.
And this is the first thing we saw as we were landing.
Penguins as far as the eye can see.
And the second thing we saw was this:
I think the only reason he wasn't attacking penguins is because he was too full from eating penguins all day.
It's not every day you get to see a predator with its prey hanging out casually in the background. Leopard seals can't do much damage on land, and clearly the penguins know this.
The island is primarily populated with Magellanic (hundreds) and Gentoo (thirty-ish) penguins, but for some not completely known reason, there was one King penguin just hanging out among the colony of Gentoo penguins.
A king and his subjects.
The gentoo penguins have a great running stance.
Fly!
The weather really worked out for us, it was overcast at first, but the clouds burned off beautifully. That's probably the biggest risk you run in staying in a place like Ushuaia for a short period of time, the weather really is unpredictable.
Decent real estate.
Always time for a gratuitous selfie:
Decent view.
This time of year is around when their eggs start hatching. We were fortunate enough to get pretty close to a couple that was in the process of feeding their babies.
We just missed the regurgitating part.
After this, we retreated back to the boat and made the journey back to Ushuaia. We were on the island for about an hour, which completely flew by. We took probably 10x the number of pictures you see here, so whenever we get back to fast internet, expect to see a more complete version of the trip.
Definitely worth it, in my opinion.