On our way back to the mainland, we had one more stop we just had to do on Chiloe and that was to go and see if we could find any penguins.  The children were really excited to see them, but we kept warning them that these penguins were in the wild and they might not even be here yet.

We travelled north to Ancud then another stunning drive west along the coast.  The road was small, with twists and turns and spectacular wild sea views of the Pacific.  Just as we were unsure if we had missed a turn off, the road came down a hill and ended on a beach.  Luckily a man was standing by the road and waved us onto the beach and pointed to a car park where we could stop.  So we drove a few hundred metres along the sand and pulled in.  

We advised a lady who met us that we were here to see the penguins and she guided us into a wooden hut to complete our registration. 

Complete with life jackets, we were bundled onto a wooden trailer on wheels and manually towed out to the boat waiting for us in the sea.  

The boat tour took about an hour and we saw all manner of wildlife, including Humboldt and Magellanic penguins!  Baby penguins, adult penguins, swimming penguins, nesting penguins and sunbathing penguins.  Plenty enough for us to marvel and aw at.  The kids weren't disappointed at seeing them in their natural and therefore quite distant habitat, as they pointed out one or another here or there. 

Delighted we had seen them, along with the sea lions at the market stall, made me more excited at the other wildlife we would see when we ventured further north towards the equator in the new year. 

Leaving Chiloe behind us was both sad and exciting.  The place was simply beautiful, but we were now on our countdown to driving north to Santiago and spending Christmas there along with some family members who were making the trip over from Scotland.  And thus started the daily question from Axel "How many sleeps till Christmas?"