2020 Australis Cruise, Glaciers, and Penguins—
After Cape Horn, we cruised back through the Beagle Channel to see more glaciers. Our first glacier experience was changed because of a medical emergency for some passengers, but it worked out well because we changed the glacier we were visiting and got a more up close and personal look by zodiak of a different one with lots of little iceberglets and a beautiful waterfall. We hiked around another glacier with a gorgeous lagoon and lots of plant life all around it. Our guide was a marine biologist with interest in algae and lichens, so she gave us a lesson on how water-based algae gave way to lichens and mosses and eventually plants. All the guides have some interest or another, so we’ve learned a lot from them.—
In addition to the glaciers, we stopped at Wuluaia Bay on Navorino Island. Its name (in the Yamana language) means beautiful bay. The vistas after our hike up were incredible. Fortunately the guide asked everyone at one point to STFU and just listen to the silence and birds and take it all in without phones, without talking. He called it a Patagonia Moment, and it was so great to have about 40 people just enjoying a moment in nature without the constant chatter and clicking of shutters.—
We learned a bit about the people who lived there before Europeans came. There were five main groups in this area, and most of them lived off seals and mussels. They had a rich spiritual life and oral histories passed down from generations. Like most indigenous peoples in the Americas, religion, hubris, disease, and greed killed them all in just three centuries. Sigh.—
On to cuter subjects, when Magellan’s crew found penguins on Magdalena island and other nearby places, they didn’t know what to make of the braying sound the penguins made to call their mates, so they called them jackass geese. Later changed to jackass penguins, and now properly Magellanic penguins. They’re still awfully cute. The males make nests, and the females choose a nest they like and return to it year after year. The poor male builder of the nest may or may not be the one in the nest to plant his seed in her, but that’s life. The chicks have cute brown feathers, and the juveniles have a lighter gray coat. Then as adults they have their full markings and waterproof feathers. Penguins!!!!—