On a three week cruise there is a high chance you are going to end up disliking some people. There is a high chance some of these people will be working at the ‘Shore Excursion Desk’ and already have taken half of your life savings on day trips.

We were not haters and had decided to stop even going to the desk and start living on the edge. (Well as edgy as you can be on a cruise ship). We decided to run wild and make our own shore excursions. Some experienced cruisers would say we were crazy and reckless and risked missing the ship. But hey, that would’ve made a good story…

As soon as the gangway was down we were in search of a penguin tour. And we didn’t have to search far… There was a tour office next to the ship. We booked and were on our way… (well, not exactly. They waited until the bus was full while a disgruntled fellow cruiser kept looking at his watch and saying ‘come on, come on, hurry up, hurry up’).

But soon we were off. We drove… And drove… And drove (170 km to be almost exact). Meanwhile our guide was giving us some information about the area in between sips of Matte (the beverage every single Argentinian is addicted to). She also made sure to quickly correct the ‘hurry up’ guy when he referred to the ‘Falkland Islands’…

“In Argentina we call it Las Malvinas”…

But eventually we made it to the the nature reserve of Punta Tombo, which is home to the largest colony of Magellanic penguins in the world. These gorgeous little penguins are around 50 cm tall, and their plumage is black and white. The colors present in a way that distinguish them from other species.

We arrived to what seemed like the entire cast of happy feet. There were penguins EVERYWHERE. And they were WONDERFUL.

Waddling along the beach, swimming through the water and hanging out in their burrowed nests there was not a direction that didn’t make you mentally and verbally ‘Awwwwwww’. (Well, except for the two mating – but after they finished he rested a flipper on her back as they stood side by side and once again the mental and verbal ‘Awwwwww’ was revived.

These gorgeous penguins come on shore to nest and both take turns to raise the eggs and hunt for food. Hence having countless burrows scattering the area. The chicks are adults after approximately 90 days old.

When we visited many of the penguins were still working on their nests and the highlight of the day had to be watching some sneaky little gentlemen stealing nest-constructing bits from each others burrows.

Many of the members of the colony were also malting which caused a few birds to look rather grumpy.

After an wonderful afternoon of penguin admiring we headed home (well to our temporary cruise ship home). And the ‘come on, come on, hurry up, hurry up’ man made sure we were back on time.