Chile: Wildlife near Punta Arenas
King Penguin colony at Reserva Natural Pinguino Rey, Tierra del Fuego, Chile.
The three most popular tours from Punta Arenas are also my favorites. This isn’t always the case. I often find the most popular places have become overly commercial, overly crowded or just plain boring. These tours are worth your time. The half day tour to see Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena, the full day tour to Tierra del Fuego and the full day whale watching tours truly are fantastic. I also recommend independently visiting Pali Aike National Park and the Magallanes National Reserve.
Isla Magdalena & Isla Marta (half day)
This is an absolute must. It’s short, it’s easy and you get to walk within mere feet of Magellanic Penguins. Of course, walking near penguins comes with a lot of rules. The most important are no littering and no scaring the penguins. As long as you don’t run, yell, make loud noises or approach the penguins, you won’t scare them. The two times I visited the island, everybody followed the rules and penguins sauntered by within three to four feet of me many times. If they get closer than five feet, you’re supposed to back slowly away.
Unfortunately, the penguin population of Isla Magdalena is declining. While more research is needed, what we know now is that the penguins’ favorite food (sardines) is declining in the Strait of Magellan. The population on other islands farther north, where sardine numbers are growing, is also growing. Some day, Magellanic penguins may move their main nesting ground from Isla Magdalena, which is so easily accessible from Punta Arenas. All the more reason to go now! In 2019 and 2022 I went with Solo Expediciones and both times had a fantastic experience. Their guides are knowledgeable, friendly and great at keeping both people and wildlife safe.
Isla Marta
If the weather is decent, after Isla Magdalena you’ll go by Isla Marta to see the sea lions. You can’t get off the boat or even get very close to the island, so don’t expect to get up close to any sea lions. The island itself is a giant guano pile from the cormorants that cover the island.
Tierra del Fuego & King Penguins (full day)
This day is about so much more than penguins - though I’ll admit that was my draw the first time. I did this tour with Turismo Selknam in 2019 and then retraced the steps to do it all again on my own in 2022. If you do it as a one day tour, it’s a very long day. You’ll get on a van which boards the ferry from Punta Arenas to Porvenir. From Porvenir you’ll drive almost two hours to the King Penguin colony. After the penguins, you’ll go north across the most desolate part of Tierra del Fuego to the Punta Delgada ferry crossing. This is only a half hour ferry ride and you have a good chance of spotting Commerson's dolphins, called tonina overa in Spanish. From there you’ll drive south to Punta Arenas, stopping along the way at a shipwreck and a few historical sites.
When I retraced the tour alone in a rental car in March 2022, I did it backwards. I drove north from Punta Arenas and crossed on the Punta Delgada ferry to Tierra del Fuego. I drove down to Porvenir, then on another day visited the King Penguin colony at La Reserva Natural Pinguino Rey. You need a reservation to see the penguins, since groups must go with a guide to ensure that nobody bothers the penguins. Owner Cecilia Durán let me go by myself this time, since I’d been communicating with her for months about visiting and I already knew the protocols.
Cecilia Durán has a fascinating story. Her husband’s family used to raise sheep on their land, until penguins started to appear on the beach. When the King Penguins established a colony in 2010, they had to quickly find a way to protect them. Read more about her here (in Spanish).
Whale Watching (full day)
The third time is the charm! I had this tour canceled on me twice due to strong winds (2019 and 2022) before finally getting to go in 2023! As it was, there were several times when I went out on deck that I had to tighten my hood to keep my alpaca hat and glasses from being blown off. When a ferry or tour boat is cancelled for strong winds, consider those to be gale force winds. I went with Solo Expediciones, which is the only company in Punta Arenas who does this trip. I had a great experience and highly recommend them!
This is a very long day that usually starts with a 4:00am pick up from your hotel. You’ll be on a bus for an hour before you get to the boat. Once on board, you have about two hours until you start to see whales. In the mean time, there is unlimited coffee, tea and hot chocolate and you are served breakfast. Expect both breakfast and lunch to be heavy on carbs and similar to airplane food. If you want something more substantial than carbs, bring your own.
We saw several humpback whales and they came quite close to the ship. They breathe very loudly and you can see the white underside of their fins in the water next to the ship. It was magical! We went through the same area with whales before and after lunch. You’ll go as far as Seno Helado (Frozen Sound or Ice Cream Sound, depending on how you want to translate it) to see the glacier before having lunch.
You also get to go by some islands in Francisco Coloane Marine Park where you can see Magellanic Penguins. These are the same as on Isla Magdalena, but rather than living out in the open like most penguin colonies, these ones live in the forest. It’s something you’ll not see on any other penguin tours.
The Captain’s Chart
The entire chart from where we started to where we saw the glacier covered a whole table. This is only the last bit, where we saw whales and the glacier where we had lunch and then turned around.
Pali Aike National Park
This is one of the least-visited national parks near Punta Arenas, but well worth your time. I saw guanaco, rhea (ñandu in Spanish), foxes, hares and lots of birds. If you’re lucky, you’ll also see puma.
It has three lava flows, the oldest from about 10 million years ago and the most recent from about 10,000 years ago. There’s a cave in the largest crater from the oldest flow that has evidence of human habitation about 10,000 years ago. The cave has a great view of the newer lava flow and I like to imagine that people stood right where I did, watching the earth open up and lava flow out. Of course, carbon dating isn’t that exact and people could have arrived there a few hundred years later, or even ten years later. Most artifacts have been taken to museums in Chile.
It’s a two and a half hour drive from Punta Arenas and I recommend going with your own car so you can control how much time you spend at each place in the park.
Magallanes National Reserve
So close to town that you can go there in a taxi (600 pesos), this reserve has a well maintained hiking trail and several view points that look out over the Strait of Magellan. The park entry fee is high for what you get, but it’s still a nice place for a walk in the forest. I saw several condors, but didn’t get any good photos. This is a great place for birders, if you enjoy identifying lots of little forest birds.
Recommended guides
For boat tours of glaciers in Tierra del Fuego, contact Viejo Lobo de Mar Expediciones on Instagram or vldmexpediciones@gmail.com
For personalized tours, contact KaNaturaleza kanaturaleza@gmail.com or WhatsApp+56923960855
KaNaturaleza owners Katalina Carretta & Ignacio Carrasco have three Instagram accounts @katarukinka @nachoexplorador @kanaturaleza
