Rockhopper colony
Yellow eye plumes.
rodoluca — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Andreacav7 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Andreacav7 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Noelia Locicero — CC BY-SA 4.0 · rodoluca — CC BY-SA 3.0
Isla Pingüino, Penguin Island, is a small rocky island about 1.2 kilometres long and a kilometre wide off the Santa Cruz coast southeast of Puerto Deseado, at the heart of a protected marine park. Sailors knew it from the sixteenth century, when ships bound for the Strait of Magellan took eggs and sea-lion oil here, and the ruins of an early-twentieth-century navy lighthouse stand on it. Its star residents today are rockhopper penguins, with yellow plumes above their eyes, one of the few places in Argentina to see them, alongside Magellanic penguins, sea lions and seabirds. It is visited on organised boat trips from Puerto Deseado of about five hours in the morning, in small groups, walking to the island's high point and over to the far side where the rockhopper colony lives. The season runs from mid-October to about April.
Yellow eye plumes.
Navy ruins.
Sea lions and birds.
About 21 km southeast of Puerto Deseado, 3 km off the coast, Santa Cruz
From mid-October to about April, on an organised boat trip from Puerto Deseado.