This afternoon we boarded the zodiak and headed to landing at Yankee Harbor. As we approached, we could see hundreds of gentoo penguins! Kierron, our assitant expedition leader, greeted us and gave us the lay of the land. Then he and Alex helped us out of the zodiak into a few inches of water where we then made our way onto the rocky harbor.
Mom got a couple walking poles to assist her, and we made our way towards one of the nearby areas of penguins. We had to stop a few times as penguins crossed (we had to keep 15 feet away – its handy to have someone else with you to help maintain situational awareness!)
My sister and went ahead and got closer and we were able to spy some baby penguins in the colony.
Then we headed back to join the line of people waiting to return to the ship. Fortunately there were still plenty of penguins around for us to see!
The other night we attended a talk about how to tell the 3 types of brush tailed penguins apart. As part of that, the gentoo’s sound was compared to Chewie from Star Wars. We can attest to that!
For dinner we went to The Restaurant (one of the sit down restaurants on the ship) with some of the friends we made.
Based on an announcement from the captain ealier this evening, we are now entering the Drake Passage on our way north.
We are expected to arrive in Ushuaia on Friday. Then we will disembark on Saturday at 7am. We have opted to take a tour of Tierra del Fuego before our charter flight back to Buenos Aires.
Still things to do and see on board as we head north, so stay tuned!
