Ecosystem- Kayaking the Magellan Strait

We woke up after a long sleep exhausted from the day before of hiking and being pecked at by penguins. We decided that instead of settling with the included hotel breakfast we would go to a restaurant called cafe 1900. It was lightly raining but that wasn't going to deter us so we suited up into our jackets and headed out. It was only a block down the street and we arrived quickly gladly greeted by the heated air. We were quickly seated and ordered 3 ‘pichangas’ for us to share. Our waiter brought us our food and we realized we had our work cut out for us. It was a mountain of fries covered in a cascade of foods including pork, chicken, eggs, olives and cheese. We spent over 30 minutes finishing off our meal and we paid and left. Seeing as our kayaking excursion was happening later in the day and we would need food we stopped by a popular supermarket called Unimarc. We spent about $80 on sandwich materials, soda, and chilean chips. We returned to our hotel and spent some time creating and packing our lunches for our trip.

Once the car had arrived to pick us up, which was included in the cost, we got inside with our backpacks loaded with our food and clothes. It was a quick drive, only about 10 miles and we arrived in about 15 minutes and got out. We were introduced to our guide Jorge and were told how to row a kayak. It was a simple talk about how to steer and move around easily. We all were given our gear and we boarded our kayaks with Joey and Russell in one Jake and Matt in another and Noah in the kayak with Jorge. We practiced moving around and quickly got the hang of it being able to glide across the water skillfully. Jorge started off for what he told us would be our first hour of rowing. We followed him across an untouched river lined with reeds as we traveled towards the Magellan Strait. We continued on as the rain slowly died off and kept rowing taking pictures of the scenic areas around us. We left the small river we were on and took a short break to eat a snack that Jorge gave to us. We rested for about a half hour enjoying the sounds of the birds and sea life around us. Jorge told us about the native birds and how they lived, he also pointed out where previous groups had seen marine life like dolphins. Unfortunately we dint see any dolphins but we did see a couple of penguins swimming by. Once we had finished our snack we headed out again along the edge of Punta Arenas. We started to glide along the water as the sun set and we all took pictures while Jorge told us more about the surrounding area and what lived there. As the sun sank into the water with the sky turning orange it was time to turn back.

We went back the same way we came in, harder for us though because it was dark, but our guide led us with practiced ease. We passed the same forests of algae and trees as we returned. We stopped again, to eat dinner this time and continued on. We arrived back at the start and got out, surprisingly we were soaked from all the time we spent paddling. We changed into the extra change of clothes that was suggested and got back into the car we were brought in and were returned to our hotel. We stayed up for a little longer watching tv with english subtitles and then drifted off to sleep.