Chile Guide
Southern Patagonia
Monumento Natural Isla Magdalena
One of the largest penguin colonies in southern Chile, MONUMENTO NATURAL ISLA MAGDALENA is home to more than 120,000 Magellanic penguins (also called jackass penguins because of the braying noise they make). The small island, just one square kilometre and topped by a pretty red lighthouse, lies 35km northeast of Arenas, two hours away by boat and easily visible from the city in clear weather. Fifteen-metre-high cliffs surround the island; they're covered in tufts of grass, under which the penguins dig their burrows. In September or October each year, the birds migrate back here and find their mate — they're monogamous and remain faithful to one partner all their lives. They start burrowing, and the female lays two eggs in the nest. When the chicks hatch, in November, both parents nurture the young, one adult remaining with the chick, the other going fishing. In late January the ground is covered with drifts of white down, blown about by the wind, as the chicks shed their baby feathers and get ready for their first trips into the ocean. By the end of March the penguins have returned to sea again.
You can get surprisingly close to the birds as they half hide in the waving grass, but if they start to cock their heads from side to side you're disturbing them; try not to upset the chicks in particular. The birds are well protected by Conaf guardaparques, and their nests are fenced off, so you can't get too close to the chicks in any case. The birds seem to feel that there's safety in numbers, and when in a group they appear blasé about any human presence. You can reach Isla Magdalena by the Melinka, a passenger ferry operated by Turismo COMAPA. It departs at 4pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in season (Dec– Feb). The five-hour round-trip, which includes one hour viewing the penguin nesting area, costs CH$22,000, half-price for children, and is worth it for the ride alone. There's nowhere to stay on the island, though naturalists with a good reason and a special Conaf permit can overnight in the lighthouse.