Argentina

Penguin Day

Written by Mark McElroy

They wander the beach and the hills beyond: thousands and thousands of penguins, in town to mate and molt.

It’s like an episode of _The Walking Dead_ — but with penguins instead of zombies. They shuffle. They lurch. They stare. They sneeze. They make forlorn noises, like donkeys tooting those annoying New Year’s Eve whistles that unroll like long tongues when you toot them.

We snagged a ride with a local, who sped us there at eighty miles an hour, driving on the left as often as on the right, getting us there ninety minutes before the bus loads of tourists from our ship arrived. We had the beach to ourselves: just us and penguins as far as the eye could see.

About the author

Mark McElroy

I’ve racked up more than a million Delta SkyMiles exclusively through pleasure travel — earning me the nickname “Million Mile Mark.” Because family and friends planning their own vacations ask for recommendations all the time, I came up with the idea of sharing my suggestions online. For more about me and my mission, please see "Who is MillionMileMark?" on the main menu of this site.

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