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itamarm2014
The place itself is nice but it's not worth more then a 20 minute trip.You get to see a couple dozens of penguins from a great distance about 20 meters (using a scope).All the full day trips are a complete waste of time and money!
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michaelszippy
We really enjoyed this small, privately run attraction. There are very few places where you can see these beautiful penguins. First week in February is well into the breeding season, and we were treated to views of a newly hatched chick. Unlike the magellanic penguins on Isla Magdelena, the kings are largely stationary. This is a small colony, with two groups. One is maybe 30 birds, the other slightly smaller.I'm not sure why people complain about being too far away, unless they were expecting a zoo experience. Bring binoculars and have a decent zoom on your camera and you're fine. The birds are probably 50 meters away at the first viewing spot, a little closer at the second. The first viewing area has wood blinds which make a convenient camera prop. The staff were friendly and helpful, providing a high magnification spotting scope for super close ups. They seem to have brushed up a bit on their penguin knowledge, perhaps based on prior reviews, but a quick Wikipedia read is still useful. Not much English is spoken. The offices consist of a couple of trailers, one of which includes a bathroom. Once you pay your entrance fee, you walk a short, level loop that goes from the viewing areas. Less than a half mile total. We went through the reservation process, although it appears that it's really not necessary as people just show up with no problem and we were not asked about a reservation. I would add that we have a private car and stayed for an hour-and-a-half or so. I can see why the people on tours have given mediocre, or worse, reviews. The tours take the 9am ferry from Punta Arenas (2hours), then drive the 1.5-2 hours (or so) to the park. They don't have time to make the afternoon ferry back, as it leaves at 2pm most days. So they continue north and take the Punta Espora ferry back, leaving a long drive back to Punta Arenas. It's a tiring day that doesn't leave a lot of time at the park. I don't think there's a way around this unless you rent your own car and spend the night in Porvenir. If you take that tack, be cautious of the ferry schedule, as it doesn't run on Monday and has a different schedule on Thursday. For us, we made this a stop on our drive to Ushuaia and it was totally worth it.
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bstdflsh
Out of the way for a glimpse of a small King Penguin colony. They are a beautiful creature and this colony is the only one we saw in our travels. There is an attempt to build a greater colony although there are predators in the area. There is a small gift shop with the woman at the facility making most of the crafts offered.
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whatsinaname_13
5 stars for being able to see king penguins and hear their beautiful trumping. The staff are super friendly and do their best to explain the where's, whys and whats. Spanish is the lingua franca in the park.downside is the reaallly long day trip to get there. The guide did a great job breaking it up with sights on the way - including watching guanocos jump fences, a minefield , old ship wrecks and lunch in Porvenir. All of these are a function of the group you go with. Recommend carrying a pair of binoculars to see the penguins better - they are around 30 - 40 m away. Also a camera with a verry goooood zoom - and most point and shoots don't cut it.
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90ChristineW
The main reason we stayed in Punta Arenas was to visit the king penguins. I wish I'd paid more attention to other TA reviews. We booked the trip through an amateur company called Turismo Paisaje Austral (not listed on TA & TA won't list them for some reason I don't understand). DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AS US! This company is nothing to do with tourism. The whole day lasted 13 hours - 12 hours of which was travelling, to spend less than an hour viewing the king penguins, from across a small stream, so you didn't get to go that close, which I can understand the reason for, but we were able to get much closer to the 2 king penguins at the penguin island at Estancia Harberton, near Ushuaia, and they didn't seem to mind! & there was no tour guide during the 12 hour journey either Spanish or English speaking! We did have scanty explanations along the way from a nice American girl, who worked for the company, but who explained that she was not our guide because it was her day off.The price for the day was 48,000 Chilean pesos for the travel plus 12,000 Chilean pesos entrance fee to the 'parque'. We were not impressed by the parque, which is a couple of portacabins, some information leaflets only in Spanish & a couple of toilets. The lady guide told us s little about the penguins, but was unable to provide satisfactory answers to any detailed questions. She tried to have us believe that this not colony of king penguins, which numbers between 70 & 100 is the largest in the world. That is nonsense! There are huge colonies on the subantartic Islands. I'm no expert, but a quick read of Wiki tells you this & my job isn't as a guide in a so called Parque. "Why do the penguins come here?" We asked. The answer was a simple "we don't a know". On the way back, we stopped at an oil town called Cerro Sombrero. Just about everything was closed, but we stayed long enough to ensure that we missed a ferry back from Punta Delgado and had to wait an hour & a half for the next one, due to high winds. Nightmare day. Think lomg& hard before you book this trip - probably better to go there with your own transport, if at all
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LukaszB77
I feel big pain in my a... It's 300 km one way from Punta Arenas so including ferry it will take you 12 hours to go there and back. Not worth it. 60 pengiuns in a grass field 50 meters away. We've spent there 10 minutes and paid 100 usd each for the transportation and 24 usd admission fee. If you go bring your own sandwich, they don't even have hot water for a tea.
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olies2013
To give you an idea of the place, it is a small park on private farm land, run by the farmer. It's not a huge commercial venture with luxury facilities, walkways and information boards, but the price tag reflects that at 12,000CLP per person. This goes towards running the facilities and the scientists but doesn't stretch much further than that. Do your research on the penguins upfront if you are looking for detailed information, and use your time at the park to actually see the penguins up close.The advantage of it being a small scale operation is that there are far fewer people fighting for a good spot for their photos - there is plenty of room. You can get incredibly close to the King Penguins, closer than many larger companies would allow you to, even in a zoo. When we visited, there were over 80 King Penguins, the majority of which were no more than 40 meters away from us. Others were swimming in the river less than 10 meters away making it one of the closest encounters of wild animals you will get anywhere in the world. It truely is a must do experience in Patagonia.But please make sure you obey the rules to ensure this place stays as good an experience as it currently is...don't cross the signs asking you to keep your distance, keep quiet at all times, keep kneeling or seated and no flash photography. Otherwise you'll spoil it for future visitors.And most of all, enjoy it!
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Art_Anton
You will spend several hours getting there and 10 000clp per person. We stayed like 5 minutes, because this was it. A bunch of penguins far from you. Nobody to tell you anything about them,
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CorneliaR828
If you don't want to go with a tour, you need a car to get to this place in the middle of nowhere in Tierra del Fuego.The homepage says that you should make a reservation for your visit in advance, but we went in high season and there was still no problem to get inside. The welcome by the people guarding it was really warm and they explained very good (in Spanish and English) about the park and the pinguins. Then you can walk around to watch the animals, some of them with eggs or babies (in january) and some just on the beach, where you can go closer to observe them.It's good to bring a coat against the wind, as well as gloves and a cap. Entrance is more or less expensive though it's worth it cause the use the money to protect these stunning and funny and rare animals.
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xonthebeach
Wenn man nur von Punta Arenas hierher fährt wegen den Pingus ist es schon weit, aber wenn man sowieso nach Ushuaia fährt, sollte man den Umweg hierher machen, egal welche Fähre man nimmt, die von Punta Arenas direkt (ca 2.5 Stunden Fahrt, fährt nur einmal pro Tag und nicht täglich) oder die bei Baia Azul (fährt i,mer, wenn man Pech hat muss man aber bis zu 4 Stunden anstehen). Die Pinguiene sind wirklich sehr witzig und relativ gross. Auf beiden Fähren haben wir zudem sind Art Delphine gesehen, die zuerst vor dem Schiff in die Höhe sprangen und danach die ganze Zeit neben dem Schiff hergeschwommem sind und Sprünge gemacht haben.
