Penguins and Seasick

 

For some odd reason I have a strong urge to dance this morning. It could have been due to the sick beats all last night… Without breaking dad’s tradition of planning early morning events, we were all up at 6 am to go see the penguins. We piled into a bus and drove to a submarine-looking boat to take us 1 hour out into the Magellan Straits to see the mythical creatures. As the boat gently bobbed towards the island we engaged in a very lively discussion of travel with an animated Chilean while dad (who is HIGHLY susceptible to sick sickness) concentrated on not vomiting. The winds picked up just before we arrived giving us a glimpse into what sailing in these treacherous waters would be like. If you closed you eyes and someone said, “imagine the treacherous Magellan straits”, it would be how you imaged it (or at least how I thought). We landed safely on the penguins’ island and were immediately inundated with thousands of squawking penguins covering this barron plot capped by a red and white lighthouse. For how funny these little guys look on the discovery channel, it is nothing compared to how funny they are in person. They each have their own little personalities and quarks. These were temperate weather penguins that have one of the longest migrations. They normally reside in Brazil but come down here to feeds on sardines, mate for life, and produce offspring. Interestingly enough the females choose their mates based on how well constructed their burrows are. Needless to say the entire island looked like Swiss cheese with all the dug burrows. We slowly followed the pre designed path occasionally allowing some self righteous penguins to cross and roamed throughout their colony. The wind picked up even more and now there were 1-2 meter waves around our island. After an hour with the impeccably dressed birds we returned to the boat to go see sea lions. I’ve been in some rough seas in my day by the ocean chewed us up and spit us out repeatedly. Several people hit their heads on the ceiling as we crested waves. I did not know there were so many different shades of green that a single person could turn but dad managed to hit the full spectrum. With frequent sighs and loosening of clothing an eruption of vomit was imminent. We finally pulled into the island and when the captain came down to inform us that the seas were too rough to continue so he had returned us to the busses instead of another 3 hours on the ocean I don’t think I had ever seen my dad so happy/green. While disembarking I could have sworn I saw him kiss land. After a small snag of my phone getting wrenched out of my pocket on the boat and not realizing until we returned to the hotel the trip was a success. Luckily the tourist group was amazing and found my phone and got it to me! 

Emily and I have been having issues with the airlines in country and found out they canceled our return trip so we rescheduled to fly out that evening a start our poolside vacation in Santiago early. We left the adults in good spirits and flew to Santiago where we crashed in our luxurious hotel for the night. Best sleep of the trip!