After several days of relaxation in Bahia Inglesia we set off down the coast in search of pinguinos. We stopped at Punta de Choros where there were boat tours to two islands off the coast that are a national reserve for Humboldt penguins. We arrived around lunch time and paid for our boat ride and parking, we boarded our boat with a single out board motor, with bench seating without a cover. The seas were relatively calm so none of the people in our boat got sick which was a minor miracle. The boat ride out to the island took a half an hour and we just missed seeing a whale, we were able to see a dolphin and an sea otter, sea lions and multitudes of birds, and we were about to give up seeing penguins when we spotted several in a secluded cove. They were hanging around in a little cluster, looking a bit ragged.
We were not allowed to disembark on the island due to a quota of how many people per day were being allowed but we enjoyed the boat ride and the marine layer was starting to burn off and it was warming up. We had lunch back on the main land which was mostly empanadas and veggies; I had a loco variety which was some sort of shell fish. We set off down the coast to our final destination which was La Serena/Coquimbo a few hours north of Santiago.
Travel-Trotter 