Punta Arenas Otway Tour

[jeanb]

Has anyone been on this tour and can tell me how difficult is the walking and the wind especially for a senior in our group with a lung problem? There are 2 excursions for this port, Magdalena Island and Otway. Both are to see penguins. Which do you think is better for the person I described?

[traveller123]

I've only done the tour at the Otway Reserve. The ground is flat (no hills). However, most of the walking is done on wooden walkways about a foot above the ground. It was windy out there, but not too windy. The only place where I found the wind to be bad was near the beach... there is an area to stand behind a wooden platform to see the beach and the penguins in the water. It was windy at that platform. Otherwise, you are inland a wee bit and the wind was fine. I'm not sure how steady a person with mobility issues would feel walking along the wooden walkways. I think the total distance may have been about 2-3 kms.

[Aussie Gal]

jeanb,

 

We did the Otways excursion in January this year and I have to say that the wind was as bad as we have ever experienced. We come from a fairly windy city with winds in winter from the Antarctic so am used to that sort of weather but on this particular day the wind practically knocked us over.

 

We found the wind the hardest as we walked towards the beach. Once we started the return journey, the wind was behind us which was much better. It was very cold and we were glad to have a coffee at the little kiosk when we returned back.

 

You walk on a boardwalk and it is flat. We were on the first bus in the afternoon - there were 12 buses altogether as we had missed the two ports for seeing penguins - and we are fast walkers so we were able to see everything without lots of other people milling around. It got quite crowded as the afternoon wore on.

 

Otway Bay was our only choice for seeing penguins in Punta Arenas. By the way the wind wasn't nearly as bad in the city as out at the Penguin colony. It had been raining earlier on but by the time we arrived at Otway Bay, the rain had stopped. It would have been unbearable to have had both rain and wind.

 

Jennie

[dileep]

Seno Otway was EXTREMELY windy and cold in January. I wish I had ear muffs! The ground is flat but you will walk more than a mile! Check out my pictures.

[jeanb]

Thanks everyone for the information about Otway. Now it's time to decide which tour to take. Dileep, enjoyed your photos.

[dileep]

You can download my penguin movie at

 

http://www.archive.org/details/SouthAmericaPenguins

[gerena]

We went to Seno Otway on Jan 16, 2006. The weather was beautiful although I had read that they have terrible winds. We only wore a turtleneck and windbreaker. We were pleasantly surprised. Of course our trip on HAL gave us great weather the entire trip. We were very fortunate as the previous cruise was not so fortunate as were other cruise lines. In fact in Ushuaia where it was to also be so cold, I kept peeling off down to a turtleneck and still was too warm. I am usually cold, so what a suprise. I think you can follow the posts of the others. It is easy walking on the boardwalk, but a long walk. Have a great time.