The Bottom of the Earth

Back in Spring, when we (read: Truus) were putting together a plan for our trip to Chile, the subject of Penguins came up. Truus was explaining in great detail about an extra side trip we could do at the end of our stay in Patagonia. It went something like, “when we’re done with the W in Torres del Paine, we can take a 3 hour bus ride to Punta Arenas, and, weather permitting, a 2.5 hour boat ride to Penguin Island.” 

Truth be told, I was not really paying full attention, being somewhat preoccupied with mental revisions to my will and testament as I tried to visualize a way to survive the W, and being partially distracted by binge-watching the latest season of Peaky Blinders. “Huh… ya, sounds good,” I mumbled at the time.

Over the subsequent 7 months, I must have asked Truus a dozen times if we were leaving for the W trek from Puerto Natales or Punto Arenas. To her credit, she never lost it on me and repeated our Patagonian agenda with the patience she reserves for the aged and the mentally infirm.

Still, it never sunk in. I never looked at a map or did any research into Punta Arenas. I just knew that it was somewhere south of Puerto Natales, and that Penguins could possibly be in play.

The city of Punta Arenas owes its existence to its unique geographic position related to its proximity to the Strait of Magellan. Until 1920, when the Panama Canal was inaugurated, all ships looking to cross over from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans had to go through Punta Arenas.

The other thing that Punta Arenas is famous for is Antarctic Exploration. For a thirty year stretch starting at the end of the 19^th century, Antarctica was the final unexplored continent on the planet. Adventurers from across the globe came to Punta Arena in a race to get to be the first to reach the South Pole. It was called The Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration. Punta Arenas was both the staging area, and the port from which the eventual requisite rescue missions were launched.

The most famous of these misadventures was the voyage of Ernest Shackleton in 1916. Shackleton led three expeditions to Antarctica. He was a well-known figure in Punta Arenas, and was knighted for his accomplishments. In 1916, having lost the race to the South Pole in December 1911, Shackleton tried to better his peers with a crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole. Disaster struck when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in Antartic ice and was slowly crushed. 

The rest is the stuff of lore. Shackleton rallied his men to somehow survive the elements. Shackleton ultimately navigated a lifeboat to Elephant Island and then the South Georgia whaling station – an open ocean voyage of more than a thousand kilometres – to get help for his men.

According to Shackleton’s Wiki page, at his 1956 address to the British Science Association, Sir Raymond Priestley, one of Shackleton’s contemporaries, rated the GOAT polar explorers as follows: “Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton”.

Could have used Shackleton on the W trek.

But enough about Punta Arenas. The entire point of 3 days of travel and budget-busting expense was to set foot on Penguin Island. And it didn’t disappoint. Never seen so many flightless birds at close proximity in my life. There’s a path that circles the refuge. There are strict rules to be followed as you walk this path, including what to do if a penguin attacks you. Apparently, it’s just like in the YRDSB – you just have to take it if an innocent penguin is triggered and lashes out.

Maybe we just got lucky, but we escaped without having to fill out any penguin incident reports. Just a lot of dozy birds hanging out in the sun looking bored. As you can see, Howie and Truus got some great pictures. 

We leave Patagonia and the South of Chile, tired, battered, and somewhat bruised. As Shackleton’s men said upon being rescued, “All safe, all well.” 

Next post – wine country and our perilous adventures on the beaches of Vina del Mar!

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