Antarctica -- October-November 2010

Magdelena Island (Isla Magdelena in Spanish). This is in the Strait of Magellan.

Normally, the expedtion staff went ashore before everyone else, deployed their emergency equipment, scouted out what was interesting to see, packed down paths in the snow (in some places), and put out flags to mark the limits of the areas it was OK for tourists to roam around in. Here, the park/preserve was already set up for a limited number of visitors (although the ship apparently had to get special permission for us to go ashore). These rope lines were already set up when the expedition staff came ashore.

The expedition staff briefing on landings in general asked us to not walk closer than 15 feet to a penguin. However, that rule did not apply to them. In this place, in particular, they were very curious about us.

(22 Nov 2010)

Magdelena Island

Although visitors were required to stay within the roped-off paths, the penguins were not required to stay out of them.

The ship had never previously obtained permission to actually land passengers (or expedtion staff) on this island. Apparently the expedition team had never previously encountered penguins who were this curious about humans.

Fram’s nominal capacity is 320 passengers. This trip there were 200 (exactly), with only 197 qualified for landing (by the end of the trip after some falls and injuries). There are a few places where ships with over 200 passengers are not allowed to land. The smaller-than-normal number of passengers may have been a factor that allowed this landing.