The small flat island of Isla Magdalena, about 35 km north of Punta Arenas in the middle of the Strait of Magellan, is in summer a city of penguins. From October to early April, around 120,000 breeding pairs of Magellanic penguins come ashore here to nest in burrows; visitors walk along a roped path through the colony, with the birds shuffling, calling and squabbling on every side.
Most people visit on the morning ferry from Punta Arenas — a two-hour crossing each way, with about an hour ashore — or on faster zodiac trips that also stop at the sea-lion colony on Isla Marta. Bring serious wind-and-waterproof gear and a hat; the wind on the island is much fiercer than in town, and you will spend an hour standing in it.