Sea Lions!

 

Sea lions! On the beach! In the surf! Everywhere.

The second destination du jour for the ferry-boat was Isla Marta, an even smaller speck of rock north of Isla Magdalena in the Straits of Magellan.

How small of a speck?

That small.

Another ferry-boat beat us to the island.

We did not "stop" and disembark on Isla Marta. Sea lions are not penguins, for one thing.

These are better to observe at a safe distance.

Fortunately, my camera had "zoom," in the old sense of a "zoom" lens, not in the modern sense of interactive computer meeting software where someone forgets to mute their microphone and lots of people have fake backgrounds that cause parts of their body to disappear from the viewing screen. Not that "zoom." 20th Century zoom.

A very large kelp "forest" surrounds the island. It's visible in this picture.

This is as much of a close-up zoom as I could zoom from the offshore distance.

The beach, at least, was lousy with sea lions.

Some were swimming, as one would expect mammals to do at a beach.

The kelp is waiting to be devoured.

Soon it was time to fly.

And time for the ferry-boat to motor its way back to Punta Arenas.

Besides, it was time for lunch.

I chose a sandwich restaurant: Lomito's.

There are no fast food chain restaurants in Punta Arenas. Nor were there any on Isla de Pascua. There weren't even that many in Santiago, just the occasional KFC. I don't even think I've seen a McDonald's in this country.

I ordered the "Lomito con queso," a pork sandwich with lots and lots of cheese. Washed down by a "shop" of Austral. "Shop" is the local term for "draft." I had the Calafate (the one with the hint of wild blueberries) instead of my "usual" Yagan dark ale.

 

It hit the spot. Now I needed a nap after these two very-early starting days.