January 27
Today was Penquin day. The other day I had met two different couples that had been to see the Penquins. Ever since, I had decided to drop by and see the Penquins. There were several different places I could see the penquins and some were down gravel roads. I had decided to wait until I was close to an area of penquins and see what time of the day it was. It would have to be closer to the morning time rather than evening. It just so happens that turned out to be San Julian which is not far off the road and no gravel .It was only 150 miles from where I had spent the night. It worked out great. I rode through the small town and right down to where the boat leaves from. The young lady working the ticket booth told me the boat would be back in 40 minutes. I rode back up the street to have breakfast and wait for departure. Timing was perfect.

I rode back down to the beach to board the boat. They didn't have a dock to board the boat, so the boatdriver had to "carry" every body aboard? I had no idea of this at the time, but I could imagine the "flinch" reaction that the driver must have had when he saw me wandering down the bank of the beach on the way to the boat. We were soon loaded, then off. The lady guide spoke good english and gave her speech twice for each subject. There are about 10 species of penquins between this point and Antartica. She explained that they stayed in the water after March, but at this time, they were nesting and they stay near shore for several months. They are monogamous, so they find the same mate each year to nest with. It was very interesting. These penquins stay in the area (relatively) and don't migrate to antartica or other far-off areas. She also explained that we might see some black and white dolphins on the way back. She was right, we saw numerous black and white dolphins.