Up for sunrise over the campground and an early start to the day as we had to be at the Darwin Expediciones centre by 7:45am for a 8:00 departure on the boat to the island (Isla pingüino) 25 km South of Puerto Deseado. First issue of the day was that I could not find my hair brush 🙄 – which eventually was found inside my helmet 😂 not the usual spot I normally keep it.

We rode the motorcycles there and then got changed and could leave all our gear in their place before being fitted with life jackets and boarding the boat with our tour guide Julia. We met an American guy from New Orleans, Regis, who happened to be one of the lead authors of the Latin America Lonely Planet guide we carry with us 🙂 which by the way did not have Puerto Deseado listed but the next edition will. Regis kindly signed our copy of the Lonely Planet which we carry with us at the end of the penguin tour 👍🤗

We travelled in a rigid inflatable boat with a Yamaha 150HP with 12 other tourists – all Spanish speaking apart from Regis and us. We saw the first penguins swimming and on the banks of Rio Deseado just opposite of our campsite. It took about 45 minutes to get to Isla Pingüino. We first passed a rocky outcrop where we saw lots of South American fur seals (Arctocephalus australis) with the large males and their harems of females which were swimming and curiously checking out the tourists on the boat. Then we headed around the island and had a glimpse of the abandoned light house and saw several cormorant species on the rocks including the red legged cormorant (Poikilocarbo gaimardi) which is gray and hard to spot on the rocks before seeing the first sight of the southern rockhopper penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome).

The captain then tried to let us off on a jetty but it was too rough and we headed to a sheltered bay where we all disembarked straight into some very slippery algae covered rocks – we were asked to step on the mussels covering the rocks for better grip and walked in single file to a concrete shelter where we left our life jackets – we already saw some of the Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) which are listed as near threatened and have a double black collar. We were asked to let them pass when they are on the way to the water and not spook them as they are easily frightened and may turn back and not have have enough energy left to forage and bring food back for the chicks. The chicks were born around November and just started to molt and will very soon head to the water and learn to swim and feed themselves.

We continued walking up to the lighthouse which is now abandoned and no longer in use after a big storm had destroyed the solar panels which had been used since 1983 to power the light house.

We then walked down the rocks to see the large colony of Southern rockhoppers which have the characteristic yellow tufts over their eyes (you might remember these from the movie “happy feet”). There is a large breeding colony on the island – the closest and only place near the continent to see them – and we saw moulting chicks and adults panting with their mouth open on a >30 degree hot day on an island without shade and I observed them drinking sea water out of rock pools. We sat on the rocks and watched them and saw oyster catchers on the rocks and were served nice Argentinian treats while taking pictures and watching the penguins. When I got up from the rocks, I tore my pants on the rocks 🙄. We eventually headed back to the shelter – looked over the bay of young male South American sea lions with an occasional Southern southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) amongst them. We put our life jackets back on and walked back to the same spot we had disembarked the boat to get back on to the boat and headed back to Puerto Deseado.

One final nature treat awaited us upon our return into the rio Deseado when we saw a family of 3 Commerson’s dolphins (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) – they are small with distinctive black and white patterns and they played around the boat diving underneath and putting on a great show and Andrew got some great footage of them.

We were back on shore by 2:00pm in the worst heat of the day and had to get back into our motorcycle gear, we got more water from the grocery shops and headed back to the campsite where we just hid in the shade. I got bitten by a horse fly on my ankle and retreated into the tent where I hid from the insects and the sun for the afternoon. In the evening, I cooked a hearty pasta meal with lentils, mushrooms, peas and some red wine before retiring into our cozy tent for a good night sleep.