Equipo Williams

A few days ago, we went to Punta Tombo, a city with a supposedly exceptionally large Magellanic Penguin Colony. We went to the museum to get our tickets but also toured the museum as well. There were some fake sea creatures hanging from the ceiling in a “under the sea” replica. The museum in total, though, was not SUPER informative. It showed us what the penguins ate, how they ate, how they slept, where they slept, and all of that information. But in that entire museum, I only saw two, as in two, pictures of penguins. They couldn’t even bother to have a real penguin in the museum, so I had low hopes for the actual colony. 

We then drove to the colony and saw . . . Guanacos! Tons of them, probably at least twenty, just from the parking lot. Anyways, although we didn’t see any penguins it was still a fun trip.

I’m just kidding, of course. You couldn’t have possibly believed that we didn’t see at least one penguin could you?! No, we got to the place, punched our tickets, started walking, and at first, only did see Guanacos. We also saw what, at a glance looked like armadillo dens. But there were no armadillos and lots of dens. Also, there was  a pile of bird poop outside of every single one of these dens, so unless each nonexistent armadillo had a bird friend that really liked bean burritos, these weren’t the burrows of an armadillo. 

As we were contemplating what they could possibly be, because surely penguins couldn’t be that close to the parking lot and to people, we looked down and sure enough, there was a penguin. Right there. Less than a meter away from us. We were supposed to stay at least six feet away from the penguins, but as you will soon see, that was just not possible here. 

So, as we looked more closely at these dens, we saw that many of them had penguins lying down in them. Then, as we were marveling at these twenty or so dens we were seeing (which, as you will soon figure out, was nothing compared to how many we were going to see), everyone behind us ooed and awed, and as the rule stated, gave the penguin walking down the path behind us the right of way. We were in front of this little guy, but the rest of the tourists (thank god) were pushed back by him walking towards them. Mama and I have videos of this, which I’m sure are somewhere on the inter-ma-webs, if you would like to see them. 

We kept walking and saw many more penguins and baby penguins (which are somehow bigger and fatter than the adults) in their burrows. We saw two babies sqwuaking at their parent for the food they could smell their parent had. We walked over a bridge, maybe half a foot over the penguins heads, and saw many travel under it on their way home. 

We saw a penguin couple and a random penguin fighting over something, which started off with them flying through the air and flailing their arms like they were trying to fly. But, it cooled down to just really loud noises. I tried to get the physical part of the fight on tape, but it was over before I could open my camera.

We saw another path-crossing penguin, but he crossed the short way over the path and did something super funny. He walked up to the path that was maybe two inches off the ground and made a bold decision. He had to get to the top of  this foreboding “cliff” so he made the ultimate choice . . . and hopped up onto the boardwalk. He made another daring jump to get off of the other side and somehow made it. It was hilarious to watch him stare intently at the boardwalk, plan his move, and then do a little hop to get up there. 

By this time we were more than halfway to the end of the boardwalk. On the horizon, maybe half a kilometer (I don’t know how many miles) away, you could see at least a hundred penguins hanging out, eating, standing with their eyes closed which is one of their favorite pastimes, and sleeping.   

After a little more walking, the smell of dung became almost unbearable. It smelled like, well, poop, and a lot of it. I think they poop walking into their homes so as to avoid a gross and stinky den, because there was a HUGE pile of poop outside every burrow. It was super gross, especially when we had to walk through it, but it was well worth it for the views and creatures we saw. 

At the end of the path, there was a beach full of at least a hundred penguins, as well as more swimming out in the ocean. I think they said that they swim up to forty kilometers away from the beach and can hold their breath for up to ten minutes. We saw them awkwardly waddle out of the ocean and head home with full mouths and full stomachs. 

We saw more penguins on the way back and were very reluctant to leave. We had heavy hearts and heavy feet and wished we could stay forever. But, although I am crushed by the though that I might not come back, I am very happy that we got to see this amazing penguin colony.