Meyer-Kaiser lab

By far my favorite thing that we did in Punta Arenas was visit Isla Magdalena to see the breeding colony of Magellanic penguins ( Spheniscus magellanicus ). These adorable flightless birds migrate every year to the tropics on the west and east sides of South America, then return to Patagonia to breed. The males arrive first to make burrows, and the females arrive a bit later. A clutch of exactly two eggs is laid in October, and the chicks hatch 40 days later. During our visit (in March), the juveniles had just molted and left the island. The adults were completing their own molt and getting ready to return north for the winter.  This post will contain a lot of penguin pictures. I just have to share them! This is what the landscape looks like at Isla Magdalena - a lighthouse, grass, and penguins. Hi, little guy! Some penguins headed to the beach We were told not to touch the penguins, to give them plenty of space, and to let them cross the path without interference. This little guy ...

After a few days in what seemed like the end of the world, remote Torres del Paine , we turned around and followed the Route to the End of the World back south...to the actual end of the world. Friends, I am in Punta Arenas, Chile! Punta Arenas certainly doesn't seem like the end of the world. It's a city with 145,000 people. There are restaurants and shopping malls and traffic noise. If you air-dropped me in the middle of downtown with no information and made me guess where I was, I would never guess "On an isolated peninsula at the bottom of the globe."  The first Chileans to live in Punta Arenas arrived here in 1848, after a short-lived attempt to settle further south. Fuerte Bulnes (Bulnes Fort), the site of the first Chilean settlement in the Magallanes region, is exposed and windy - I can tell you that from personal experience after visiting the historic site. Bulnes actually got such a bad reputation for living conditions that it eventually became a penal colo...

Guanacos! These funny animals ( Lama guanicoe ) are the relatives of llamas and alpacas, and they belong to the same family as camels. They are everywhere ! We saw a ton of these duck-ish birds. I tried hard to get a good picture so I could upload it to this species identification app I use. After all that trouble, the app said "it's a bird." Yeah, thanks, app. A visit to the natural history museum showed me that this darling is in fact a male Upland Goose ( Chloephaga picta ), also called Caiquén. My first thought when I saw these birds was "emu," but I knew I was on the wrong continent. Instead, these are rheas! Also called ñandus, they are the South American equivalent of emus or ostriches. The species in Patagonia is Rhea pennata . We visited a rocky intertidal site, and I was excited to see blue mussels! These are Mytilus chilensis , a close relative of the species I'm familiar with from the northern hemisphere. Just like their boreal brethren, M. chile...

  The towers with a glacial lake (Laguna Azul) Ranching is ubiquitous in Patagonia Super weird cloud formation seen in Torres del Paine My husband is a dork.

If you are ever in Patagonia, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine is one of the go-to destinations. Torres del Paine is actually our destination for the field trip I'm leading in a week - visiting the park is the whole reason for bringing 20 PhD students to Patagonia in the first place. I definitely wanted to spend some time exploring the park on the vacation leg of this trip (without students in tow!), and I'm really glad I did.  The name "Torres del Paine" refers to three towers that are the focal point of the park. "Paine" is derived from the indigenous Aonikenk word for "blue," and "Torres" is "towers" in Spanish. Lakes composed of melted glacial water abound, and their blue reflection on the towers gave the park its name.  To explore Torres del Paine is to observe the effects of glaciers on the landscape. Permanent snowy  masses rest between mountain peaks. Frigid meltwater pools in nearly every valley. Scar marks on the terra...

The Route to the End of the World We landed in Punta Arenas a little after 1 pm.  It took us a little while to disembark, pick up our bags, and find the rental car counter. I joked to my husband that there must be some international company selling prefabricated airports, because the layout of the terminal in Punta Arenas was exactly the same as in Palau . "Small Airport Design #2," I quipped. He pointed out that I might actually be right.  We loaded our suitcases into the car. Carl drove; I sat shotgun, and our dear friend, Maria, climbed in the back. We headed out of the airport parking lot to the north. Our adventure had just begun.  There is one major highway through southern Patagonia. It runs roughly north-south and skirts the Argentine border. Actually, at one intersection, we passed right by a border crossing. Turn right to enter Argentina. Continue straight to stay in Chile. We stayed the course - straight ahead to Puerto Natales.  Street sign on Route 9 The...

Friends, if you have kept track of the news recently, you have probably noticed the name of a ship: SS United States . This iconic passenger liner crossed the Atlantic at phenomenal speeds from 1952 to 1969. Soon, the ship will have a second life as an artificial reef.  SS United States l eft the Port of Philadelphia for Mobile, Alabama just a few weeks ago. The ship has now arrived in Alabama, where it will be stripped and  prepared for deployment . SS United States is 300 m long - larger than Titanic - so the cleaning process is estimated to take 6 months. When SS United States is ready, the ship will be sunk offshore of Destin, FL. The world's largest artificial reef will come to her final resting place later this year.  If you are reading this blog, you probably already know how much I love shipwrecks . Over the past decade, I have studied the Billy Mitchell fleet , the passenger steamship Portland , other shipwrecks in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary ...