I had the opportunity to visit
another beautiful South American country and I was delighted to go. I went with
a birding friend of mine - Lennie who was my room mate. We were also joined by
two other friends Joyce and Julie - so we four had a great time. The trip was
again led by Doug and Gail Cheeseman along with Ricardo Clark who had led our
Brazil Trip so I was looking forward to his expertise.
Saturday 3/22/08 I
left Menlo Park at 7 AM and drove to LennieÕs home where I left my car. Her
brother and sister-in-law came and drove us to the San Jose airport. We met
Julie and Joyce there. If there was ever a doubt about why to go to the airport
early that morning we found out why. I was able to check in easily and have my
bag check through in Los Angeles but they could not find Julie, Joyce, or
Lennie in the system. It took a lot of time and very gracious work with 3 staff
members to finally solve the problem and get them a boarding pass. IÕm not sure
we ever figured out the true fault/ reason for this mix up but what a relief.
We had an uneventful flight to Los Angles where we checked in at LAN and then
had lunch. We had to drive to the boarding gate which was an interesting large
structure out in the middle of somewhere and it was from there we loaded into
the plane. LAN had one of the more comfortable seating that I have flown on and
we actually had some good food which was nicely served. The flight to Santiago
was 11 hours and I actually slept some so I didnÕt feel too groggy when I
arrived. On this flight we were with some of the other members of our group,
John Silliman - a fellow traveler from Venezuela and Antarctica, Clysta and
John from Santa Clara, and of course Doug and Gail. When we arrived in Santiago
we had to pay a $131 Òreciprocal taxÓ - we had expected to pay $100 but with
the poor value of the American dollar the price was raised. This tax is because
America charges them a tax when coming to America. I lost some of my snack food
because they donÕt allow fruit into the country - not even dry fruit so they
took a package of my trail mix. I argued over my almonds and finally got to
keep them. Funny thing they missed the dried apricots I had and the other bag
of trail mix in my back pack. Also Doug had a bunch of dried fruit in his suit
case. So the inspection is rather incomplete and spotty. In fact two other
members of our group came all the way from Chicago each with a pocket knife in
their carry ons!
Sunday 3/23/08 Our bus
arrived at the airport along with Ricardo and took us to our Hotel Atton. We
had breakfast and then drove 2 hours to bird along the Pacific coast at El
Peral Reserve, which is about 30 kilometers north of San Antonio. Amazing how
much the area looked like the California coast around Monterey. The beach was
also crowded with families enjoying the day. This is the start of the Fall
season for them. Also the drive to the coast looked very much like the Central
Valley of California. It isnÕt surprising that we get so much of our winter fruits
and vegetables from Chile. There were many farming fields and the houses were a
mix of wood frame, stucco, and bricks. The houses were not as large as many of
our mega house but they were by no means small, it was what we would call
Òmiddle classÓ. There were several fields laid out for new housing tracks that
made me wonder what the place would look like in 20 years, Tracy? We visited a
lake that I think was called Luagua Cartagena which was inside a gate and the
gate keepers were so friendly practicing their English while we tried our high
school Spanish - friendly people. We stopped in the early afternoon for lunch
at a restaurant where we had some really good fish along with lots of other
food. We had a nice Easter Sunday meal getting to meet our other travelers,
David from Seattle and Alice and Dennis from Virginia. Two other members missed
the flight due to weather delays in the midwest so we have yet to meet them.
Then we had a long slow drive back to Santiago competing for road space with
all the Sunday beach goers.
Monday 3/24/08 We were
up nice and early - 4:30 to go to the airport in order to fly to Arica - a port
city in Northern Chile that use to belong to Bolivia. Because this area belongs
to Chile, Bolivia has no coast access so there is still some unhappiness about
this political boundary. We checked into our hotel and then went for a walk
along the beach. It was beautiful with the waves washing over the rocks - we
saw some wonderful scenes and birds. Finally our lunch arrived - late and we
ate at a point along the ocean. Then back to the hotel for a potty stop and we
drove out to a Valley - next to the desert - I think it was the Azapa Valley.
We went to a farm where a lady maintains beautiful natural gardens that the
hummingbirds love and we were able to see two special hummingbirds, the Oasis
and Woodstar. One of them had babies in a nest. While there we felt an
earthquake. First thing I did was look up to be sure there was no tall trees
near by. The lady said it wasnÕt a big one because the animals didnÕt get
excited. But when I got home my neighbor asked me if I felt the earthquake so I
looked it up and found that there was an earthquake that day near Pica - 150
miles south of us - about 6.2 magnitude - no small earthquake! Not much damage
because Pica is not a heavily populated place. So after a while we went back to
our hotel, Arica Hotel & Resort and actually had time to shower and clean
up for dinner. During dinner Joey and Marilyn finally arrived - in pretty good
spirits considering how long it took them to get here because of weather
related delays in the U.S. We had a nice dinner outside with a beautiful view
of the ocean.
Tuesday 3/25/08 We had
a leisurely breakfast at 7:00 and left about 8:00 driving north along the coast
and stopping for some gulls, terns, and pelicans. We continued North and East
towards the town of Putre. We had a variety of scenes - much desert mountains
with green valleys interspersed. On some of the hills were earth paintings from
about 1000 -1400 - like petroglyphs. Earth was scraped away in the shape of
animals and men - I find those fascinating. We passed several small farming
villages and some borax mining areas. We were climbing up the Andes, at about
10,000 feet we stopped at a spot that had the remains of ancient rock walls
from some long ago civilization but the water and green valley was a long way
below - it would have required a lot of carrying to live up there. We had lunch
at a restaurant that was the only building around for many miles that we could
see. It was a good lunch and they had a few souvenirs here and I was able to
buy something for my grand children. Also a lady brought out a 7 day old Alpaca
for us to pet and photograph. It was so soft. Alpacas and Llamas are the
domesticated members of the Camelid Family. Guanaco and Vicuna are wild
animals. Camelids evolved in North America and then migrated to South America
and Asia (across the Bering Strait land bridge. Then they died out in North
America. After lunch of a very good soup and salad and some coca tea to help
with the altitude we continued on towards Putre and we stopped and birded along
the road. We had some thunder and lightning ahead of us but our weather wasnÕt
too bad. We arrived at our lodge at Putre, a valley town in the Andes at 11,600
feet. We are beginning to slow down. Many of us have chosen to take the
altitude medicine. I think the medicine bothered me a bit but altitude sickness
is serious and one member did start to have altitude sickness but fortunately
we came lower in time so it wasnÕt serious. The town is a small town with
narrow streets and small houses - about 1000 people. It isnÕt a rich town but
it seemed comfortable, we saw children in uniforms going to school. Our lodge,
Hosteria Las Vicunas, was a large building with the restaurant and kitchen and
meeting rooms in one building and then several rows of small rooms in clusters
of about 4 rooms to a row. It was small and very basic and badly in need of
maintenance. Our shower had no shower head and the water just came out of of
hole in the wall. We didnÕt have hot water for a while but eventually we got
some. We had pretty good dinner of
soup, rice and beef stew and then exhausted we went to sleep. I was extremely
thirsty all night and had a head ache. We drank coca tea for breakfast to help
a bit - by the end of the day I did feel better acclimated to the altitude and
slept better the second night.
Wednesday 3/26/08
Today we started driving up in the Andes and eventually got to 14,000 feet -
slow walking but not too bad. The scenery was spectacular always with the snow
covered peaks in the background. These peaks are about 20,000 feet and along
the border of Chile and Bolivia. The highest mountain in Chile is about 22,500
feet. We drove to the small pre- Spanish village, Parinacota. In the center was
a 200 year old small church and there were several small houses many selling
drinks and souvenirs. There was also a small school and we could hear the
children inside so there is still some life in this small place. We had a nice
picnic lunch here and then continued on to Lake Chungara in Lauca National Park
- the lake is at 14,500 feet. We had a great bus driver who carefully led us
through narrow, dirt roads. This Lake is one of the highest lake in the world
although there are always arguments over a few feet here or there and what
defines a lake and how to measure it. We did see flamingos here which is always
fun. On the way back we had fun seeing a Mountain Viscacha, a small animal
about the size of a rabbit with similar features. A mother was nursing her
young. We also saw Vicuna - beautiful animals as well as Andean Deer. We had a
good dinner, especially the soup and the dessert but I couldnÕt eat the ham -
it was too salty. Our group is very pleasant and we had a lot of fun. We had to
wait a while to get any hot water but finally we did and we both slept much
better tonight - we are getting used to the altitude.
Thursday 3/27/08 This
was a travel day. first we drove two hours to Arica, then flew 3 hours to
Santiago via Iquique. Jorge - our bus driver met us in Santiago and drove us
north to the port of Quintero where we laughingly stayed at the Yatch Club
Quintero. We expected a yacht club but it was a pretty basic place. But they
had a lovely dinning room with a wonderful view of the ocean and pretty good
food. Most of our food was ok, nothing spectacular but sufficient. A few places
had excellent food. I always felt a lack of fruits and vegetables which
surprised me because so much of our winter produce in California is from Chile.
I did get tired of the bread as they ate a lot of bread and the sandwiches for
lunch were very heavy on bread and ham.
Friday 3/28/08 We left
early - 6:00 AM - to head off to Valparaiso Bay for a pelagic trip. We went 8
miles out to sea and saw lots of lovely birds, especially the albatrosses. The
ship was very comfortable with lots of chairs bolted to the deck so we could
sit outside in comfort. Most of us did just fine as it was pretty calm but a
couple of people did get sick - of course I never do. We were back on land by
1:00 and had lunch and then a half hour rest! Then we went out of town a bit to
a farm where we were allowed onto the property (for a price) and we birded the
area which included a river and some marshy area. We had lovely weather and
enjoyed some great birds including a wonderful bittern and the Wren-like
Rushbird whose name is longer than the bird! On the way through Quintero we
tried to get stamps but the post office was only open between 4 and 5:30 so we
havenÕt been able to mail post cards yet. Post cards were hard to come by and
stamps almost impossible (and expensive to mail about 6 times what we pay in
the US). After some time on this farm we went back to our Òyacht clubÓ and had
a nice dinner with a beautiful view. We sorted out our laundry too - it was
promised by early evening but it wasnÕt ready and some of us needed our
nightgowns and such. We eventually got it sorted out even though much was sent
to the wrong room - we also paid more than we expected.
Saturday 3/29/08 Today
we left at 7:30 and drove through many small towns to La Campana National Park.
We stopped in one small town for a really good empanada lunch. Empanadas are
the Òfast foodÓ of Chile - rather like a pasty, dough surrounding meat or cheese
that is fried or baked. I liked the cheese ones best. This town was like many
small towns with a square park in the center of town surrounded by small
buildings with various shops. Here there were children playing in the usual
playgrounds and also riding some horses that had been brought in for the day.
One guy asked me if I wanted to ride a horse and I just laughed at him and told
him I didnÕt speak Spanish. Throughout this drive we saw a variety of buildings
and homes with different materials but all homes are about the same size - what
we would call small or medium - and they were mostly surrounded by large
gardens planted with flowers and vegetables. In some areas, especially on the
hillside there were some very large mansion type homes so some farmers were
doing very well. There was some terracing but most farming was done on the
lower areas. We stopped along the way looking for particular birds, many were
skulkers but Ricardo called them out with tapes. We spent hours beating the bushes looking for them,
especially the Moustached Turca which we heard but only a few saw and that was
briefly in flight. It was a relief when finally we all got good looks at this
very attractive bird. He had called continually for an hour and occasionally
ran across the dirt. When we actually saw him he perched on a rock long enough
for good looks. We continued our drive to Santiago and our familiar hotel -
Hotel Atton. Such luxury here - nice and large rooms. We had time for a
leisurely shower and then had dinner in the hotel. I had one of my best
dinners, a piece of perfectly grilled chicken with a nice salad. The food has
varied tremendously on this trip. It was all served very elegantly with lots of
place settings and well trained staff. They all seemed to have been trained at
the same school. But in some of the remote areas the quality of food wasnÕt
always the best - the most consistent food was the soup - excellent everywhere.
We found out at dinner that Chile was going off Daylight Saving Time that night
(moving from Spring to Fall/Winter). Most of us used our extra hour for sleep!
Sunday 3/30/08 Today
we were all a little more rested with finally enough sleep -now we are on our
travel stride, at least I am. Finally we got some postcards mailed. Julie found
out the hotel would mail them for us if we gave them money for postage. So I
got the important ones mailed. It cost 500 pesos which is about $1.25 U.S.
money but worth it. If I find any other post cards I may just write them and
mail them from the airport in the U.S. We went to the airport and flew to
Osorno. It was a pretty good flight, LAN seems to have more leg room than
United which IÕm used to flying on. From the air Osorno looked like a large
city with some Mansions on large acreage, swimming pool and all. A guy I talked
to at the airport was on a business trip from Modesto - His company deals with
seeds for produce and he commented how much Chile looked like CaliforniaÕs
Central Valley - something I had already noticed. Osorno is Southern ChileÕs
leading agricultural center. When we arrived our bus was not there! So we sat
down and enjoy eating chocolate which David bought for us, apparently this area
makes a lot of it. After several phone calls Ricardo found out that the bus had
broken down so they found another driver and bus who would be coming to pick us
up in a hour or so. Ricardo hired 5-6 taxi cabs who took us into town to a
restaurant who said they could handle our group and luggage. We took our
luggage upstairs and it made quite a stack. But we had a room with a long table
to ourselves and we had an absolutely wonderful and fun lunch. They had
barbecue which they brought to the table on something like chaffing dishes -
each dish had a variety of meats, chicken, sausage all of it quite good and
with plenty of wine we did quite well. A couple of us walked fast around the
town square after lunch while waiting for the bus. It was quite an attractive
little town. The town is south of Santiago and in the center of the country.
Finally our nice new bus arrived and we were on our way east to Puyehue
National Park where we stayed for two fun filled days at the Antillanca Ski
Lodge. This park is in what is referred to as the Lakes Region. We did stop in
the park along the way and did some birding. It was interesting to see lots of
fuschias growing wild here - they are native. The Lodge in the park, at 3300
feet was huge, four floors with rows of small room on each floor for a total of
some 90-100 rooms and we were the only guests in the building - rather spooky
at night. The rooms were small with two twin beds and two bunk beds and with
almost no empty floor space. The thing that made the room manageable was lots
of hooks for hanging things. Plus there was a desk for one suit case and the
bunk bed for another so Lennie and I settled in nicely. We had a long walk to
the dinning room but we eventually got there and enjoyed a nicely served
dinner. The dinning room was very elegant and the waiter was dressed in black
and white with a bow tie - all very proper. We were the only guests until we
left, when 3 other ladies came in for dinner. We got to bed by 10:00 tonight -
that is nice!
Monday 3/31/08 We met
for birding at 8:00 and walked down the road. It was drizzling a bit but not
too cold and the birds were good. We had breakfast at 9:00, good and again
nicely served. No place did we have coffee already made. They would bring hot
water and a bowl of instant coffee. I thought the coffee was better than any
instant coffee IÕve ever tried at home but then it has been years since I tried
any. Then the bus drove us down the road, we would get off and walk for a while
and the bus would meet us down the road further. The forest is Beech forest -
the same type as on Australia , Antarctica, South American from Gondwanaland
times. We had a good picnic lunch
of sandwiches and fruit but no drinks. Getting enough water to drink continues
to be a problem. I guess IÕll just have to learn to carry two bottles for
myself every day. The sun finally came out so we dashed back to the lodge so we
could go up to the top of the volcano. It had been so shrouded in fog before
that we could not see it and it would not have been safe to drive up there. I
believe the volcano is called Raihuen. Our driver did an amazing job of driving
up this four wheel drive road and we were happy to arrive at the caldera. We
got out and spent some time walking in the bowl of the volcano. We saw some
birds but especially enjoyed the scenery and the wonderful plants growing on
the ground. We walked a while on the road and then went back to the hotel were
we had time to clean up before dinner. Lennie and I wore our pearls to dinner
in honor of a great day and JohnÕs birthday - which was celebrated with a cake.
It was fun.
Tuesday 4/1/08 We
walked early in the morning before breakfast - I went on a walk by myself and
enjoyed the solitude. Then we drove to Puerto Montt through the Land of the
Lakes. We made lots of birding stops with some lovely walks. We walked to the
bottom of a 40 foot water fall (El Indeo) and had lots of fun watching a
Torrent Duck swim down the fall and then in the river in front of us. Puerto
Montt was an interesting town - we just walked around a bit while Ricardo took
care of some business. We walked through a shopping mall in order to find a
restroom Pretty usual shopping area and the rest of the town was a mix of
modern and old, it was on the water front with a pretty town park at the
center. Here was where I really noticed the large number of dogs laying around.
There are many stray dogs - and I mean a lot - but they mostly look reasonably
well fed. Later in the trip we saw signs encouraging people to not abandon
their dogs so I guess it is a problem that isnÕt being worked on. Strange
though to not see any feral cats like we have in the S.F. Bay Area. The town is
pretty large - about 200,000 people. Before the airport we stopped for dinner
at a German restaurant. This area was settled by a lot of Germans in the last
century. The restaurant wasnÕt open yet (it was only 7:00!) but they opened for
us and fed us very nicely. We all had pisco sours - we have come to enjoy them
- the national drink of Chile. The pisco is made from a pisco grape, and then
added to the juice of a particular kind of lime, sugar, and egg white. We later
learned that there is some controversy about pisco sours - whether they
originated from Peru or Chile and each country has a slightly different recipe.
In fact some areas in Chile make it slightly differently. In any case we all
became drinkers of this while on our trip - nothing like doing as the locals.
We did find them pretty strong and one drink was the limit for most of us most
of the time! Then it was on to the airport where we flew to Punta Arenas
arriving at midnight for a 5 hour sleep. We each had a small cabin and ours was
hot as an oven because the heater couldnÕt be turned off. Fortunately I was
able to find someone to come with a wrench and turn it off - better too cold
than too hot for sleeping. Too bad we couldnÕt stay here longer because we were
right on the water and the views were lovely but we had to catch an early
morning ferry.
Wednesday 4/2/08 We
had an early morning breakfast and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise. Then we went to
the ferry and loaded up. The Ferry held our bus, another couple of large
vehicles and several cars. There were comfortable chairs inside for us to sit
on. But we spent much time outside - especially when we were treated to a pod
of dolphins following us. We also had penguins, albatrosses, and petrel to
entertain us. The trip through the Straits of Magellan to Porvenir took about 2
and a half hours. When we arrived in Porvenir we were taken to our hotel and
checked in. Porvenir is the main city of the Tierra del Fuego region and a
rather thriving town. It has a lot of activities - mostly fishing related. We
checked into our hotel - nice, attractive, and clean but oh such small rooms. I didnÕt think we could
both get into the room with our suitcases. We had to discuss how to engineer
the placement so we could be in the room with an open suitcase at the same
time. In order to go into the bathroom I had to close my suitcase and push it
under a shelf. In order to go to bed Lennie had to take hers off the bed and
put it on the floor. I had them turn the heater off here too - the room was
tiny and too warm. We had a nice lunch here and then got ready to leave at
2:00. The weather was gray and dreary and by the time we left it was really
raining. But we spent 5 hours driving through typical Tierra del Fuego habitat,
scrubby land with several lakes as well - land they call steppes. We were
particularly look for the Magellanic Plover but I donÕt think we found one
until the next day. We did see lots of Guanaco - I loved to watch them. They
were so graceful and had such sweet looks on their faces. It was a cold, windy,
and wet afternoon so many of us didnÕt get out of the bus much but Ricardo
shouldered on. We saw lots of Upland Geese, Swans, and Flamingoes which were a
lot of fun. We ended the day with a handsome Magellanic Owl. Back in time for a
shower before dinner.
Thursday 4/3/08 We
enjoyed a good nightÕs sleep despite the small rooms and then we had a good
breakfast. (Breakfasts were almost standard the whole time, bread, ham, cheese,
juice, coffee, eggs, sometimes yogurt.) We spent the morning driving through
the desolate steppe of Tierra del Fuego. The area was named by Magellan in in
1520. He saw smoke from the fires on the island and named it The Land of Smoke
- but the king changed the name to The Land of Fire. The area we were driving
through was a super humid stepp because of the tremendous amount of rain. Stepp
refers to a flat, cold, windy area, a term not used in North American but used
in the Northern Russian area. We made stops at a few lakes and saw several
species of birds including our target species, the Magellanic Plover. We were
also treated to a group of Hooded Grebes, a first reported sighting on Tierra
del Fuego - our leaders were very excited. We continued driving north on Isla
Grande (the largest island of Tierra del Fuego.) Then we took a 20 minute ferry
from Bahia Azul to the main island and headed west and north to Puerto Natales,
a lot of driving today. We passed an old farming and sea port station, San
Gregorio rather deserted now with some buildings remaining. I just remembered
this because we have a San Gregorio in our county in California. We enjoyed
lots of Rhea (related to the ostrich) and the lovely Guanacos and we saw all
the possible species of Geese that are on Tierra del Fuego. It was cold and
windy on this six hour drive to our hotel in Puerto Natales and we didnÕt
arrive until 9:00. The hotel was called Hotel Charles Darwin and we were
greeted with a large portrait of Charles. (He sailed in this area on his voyage
on the Beagle where he started his ideas of evolution.) Although they did
expect us the dinning room was closed because the cookÕs father had died that
morning so we walked up the street for dinner. I wasnÕt going to go because I
was so tired but I was too hungry to sleep so I went. It turned out to be a very
good and very fun dinner. It felt good to walk and I was able to order soup and
a large salad which I really enjoyed. Part of traveling is the fun of
experiencing new and different foods but sometimes I long for the old familiar
standbys and I never get enough salad when I travel. We enjoyed a good nightÕs
sleep even though it was stormy outside. We didnÕt have to get up for breakfast
until 8:00 which was nice.
Friday 4/4/08 Some
went to the grocery store after breakfast to get food for lunch and water. The
rest of us went for a walk long the waterfront. It was extremely windy and cold
but we persevered and had good looks at lots of geese and ducks and wonderful
Magellanic Oystercatchers. I saw a sign post of welcome put up by the local
LyonÕs club and I took a photo of it - probably the most southern LyonÕs Club
in the world. The town is a rather attractive town with colorful buildings -
probably to make up for the gray and dismal weather. They have built some nice
hotels - a surprising number - and probably get a lot of tourists on their way
to Torres del Paine National Park. IÕm sure they are much busier in the summer
months than they were while we were there. Many tourists just go to the park
for day hikes while others stop here before heading for back packing in the
park. After an hour or so we were picked up by the bus and we headed north. By
the way this bus is interesting - it is the smallest and oldest bus that we had
on the trip but that is because it took us over very rough and unpaved roads. It
was a little red bus with a trailer behind that held our luggage. Our driver
was excellent. We headed north towards the Park and within ten minutes we saw a
Black-chested Buzzard Eagle and then in 5 more minutes we saw an Andean Condor
- thrilling in and of itself but this one sat on a rock on top of the hill for
15 minutes and we all got great looks. It is the national bird of Chile. We had
time to take lots of photos and then he took off and flew back and forth
overhead before he left. It was just one of those wonderful experiences that
nature so generously gives us. Certainly the best and closest look of a condor
that I ever had. We stopped for lunch along side one of the lakes with a view
of the Torres Paine. (Blue Towers - mountains of granite). It was very cold and
windy but the sun comes and goes so we had pretty views. While eating lunch we
had a show of more condors about 20 today so far. Some of these flew very low
overhead and John got a great photo of one flying. After finishing lunch we
headed for the park but almost immediately had to stop for roadside guanacos,
huge herds of them right next to us - such beautiful animals. Finally we arrived at the park entrance
where Ricardo and Esteban found out it cost 15, 000 pesos each to enter (about
$30 US) and the park would not take American money (thank you George Bush) nor
would they take a credit card. Fortunately we had enough pesos among us to lend
for the entrance fee. I forgot to mention that Esteban is a friend of Ricardo
who joined us a couple of days ago. He lives in Ushuaia in Argentina and knows
this area well. He was a lot of fun to have along with us. Finally we were in
Torres del Paine National Park. What a wild and desolate place with wonderfully
shaped mountain ranges. UNESCO has declared this park a biosphere reserve and
hikers come from around the world to hike here. The park has a wide variety of
habitat. We made several birding stops along the way to our hotel - it was cold
and windy. Finally we arrived at our lovely hotel, Hosteria Tyndall. It is very
large and popular in the summer but they stayed open an extra week to
accommodate us and we were the only ones there. Again we had very tiny rooms
but we managed to arrange our stuff so we could move around. We did have a
wonderful view of the mountains from our room. The dinning area was large and
felt rather empty with just us but it was a good dinner and we had lots of fun.
Got to bed by 10:00 which was nice.
Saturday 4/5/08
Breakfast at 8:00 and then we drove to Grey Lake, a beautiful glacier lake. To
get there we had to walk across one of those suspension bridges which I always
find a bit challenging - especially if someone else is on the bridge at the
same time. There was a glacier at one end of the lake and several small ice
bergs in the lake. One turned over while we were there, Lennie heard it but
didnÕt see it turn. We hiked about 3 hours to the lake and then up an island
for a closer view of the glacier. The hike was a little longer than we were led
to expect (as usual) but it was worth it with beautiful views along the way and
at the end. There were other family groups out hiking too. We didnÕt add many
birds to our species list. We had a nice picnic lunch, ham and cheese, coke and
beer, yogurt and the oh so addictive Pringle chips. Then we drove to the other
side of the park for a Òlittle walk of an hour or soÓ. Three hours later we
arrived at the opposite of the hill where the bus was now waiting for us. The
hike was a little too much for some of us but we had to keep going and we did
have some wonderful views. It was uphill much of the way and involved some
scrambling over rocks and brush - sometimes without a clearly defined trail.
The elevation change was 200 feet and it was constant up and down. I was glad I
made it! Well we certainly burned off the calories we ate for lunch.
(Incidentally I was glad to find that I didnÕt gain any weight on this trip -
even though I ate more than usual the exercise compensated!) We got back to our rooms at 6:00 which
was a nice change - Lennie bought a bottle of wine for us and we had lots of
laughs at our end of the table.
Sunday 4/6/08 This
morning it was pouring rain so we didnÕt make many stops as we drove back to
Puerto Natales. We did stop at one place where there were about 30 Andean Condors.
In the field were 3 dead lambs - probably killed by puma. Caracaras were
feeding on the carcasses as were a few Condors. Only 3 or 4 Condors were
feeding on one carcass and the rest sitting on the hillside - probably already
full. Seeing the Condors flying next to the Caracaras we could see how big the
Condors were. They are about 4 feet tall with a wing span of 10 feet. We
stopped at a restaurant at an isolated corner and had a delicious lunch of
sandwiches and soup. They obviously get tourists stopping by as they had an
excellent selection of souvenir type clothes and books and so forth. I just
couldnÕt find anything I wanted to buy. I did buy Vincent a hat which I hope he
likes, I got his sister a purse so they each have something special. After lunch
we continued on driving to Puerto Natales, the sun finally came out for a bit
but we mostly drove today. We arrived at Puerto Natales at 4:30 and although we
were ready to go to the hotel - oh no- too early to quit for the day. So we
continued driving another hour to the dump in order to look for some other
bird. We didnÕt find the bird but as birders we can add one more dump to our
list, birders are known for going to dumps and sewage treatment plants around
the world. Our reputation is intact. Finally we were allowed back to our hotel
(Hotel Charles Darwin) and had an hour and a half to clean up, repack, and rest
before dinner. We walked up the street in the rain and cold and had a really
nice dinner at the same place as before. Then back to our rooms - which had no
electricity for a while but we slept fine. The wind and the rain howled all
night long.
Monday 4/7/08 We left
at 9:00 in the middle of a wind and rain storm. The town is a pretty good size
town with lots of shopping areas but I would think with the weather it would be
a pretty gloomy place to live. We spent most of the day just driving, through
rain, snow, hail. It wasnÕt too pleasant being crammed into that small bus for
so long. We did stop at a little shop out in the middle of nowhere. We had
stopped there on the way to the Park. When the bus pulls up someone comes from
the house and opens up the shop. Most people had hot chocolate and of course
used the rest room. While we were there another bus pulled up so the place was
filled over capacity. The shop obviously thrives on the tourist traffic. We
tried to go to a penguin colony but it was closed and then our bus driver
couldnÕt find a place to turn around. He had to drive a long way to find such a
place, Ivan was a great driver and proved it many times over. He was very
accommodating and good natured - always even tempered. He would load and unload
our luggage with such efficiency and cheer. Finally we arrived at the Punta
Arenas airport and got checked in only to find that our flight was delayed an
hour. We had something to eat and just sat around waiting. Eventually our
flight was canceled. We heard all different kind of stories, first that people
had gotten sick from the chicken dinner they ate and the plane had to be
cleaned and restocked. We sure found that story hard to believe. Then we heard
that a bird had flown into the engine and done a lot of damage - that story
might have been true. Or maybe the flight wasnÕt full enough so they decided to
make us wait for a later flight that would be fuller. Who knows. Anyway they
gave us a voucher for a snack, but unlike the U.S. it was for one particular
meal only - not a set dollar amount to apply to something else. Well we all ate
various things and waited until 8:00 and had a direct flight to Santiago
arriving about midnight.
Tuesday 4/8/08 After a
few hours of sleep we had breakfast at 8:00 and then loaded up and headed for
the mountains. We drove east and a little south to the end of the ÒroadÓ at the
Embalse El Yeso, a lake formed by damming the river. From here we had beautiful
views of the Andes and could see the Tupungato Mountain - the high point that
divides Chile and Argentina. No road goes through to Argentina in these
mountains. We drove through a few small villages that look like they might be
for tourists and for summer visitors. We stopped at one place with three clay
and straw ovens in front and order empanadas for lunch. They made them and then
cooked them in the ovens. They are a really good fast food meal. Only surprise
with these is that they put a hard boiled egg inside each one! My nose found it
quickly and saved me from eating it! We
stopped along the mountain road for birds and saw some nice ones, We
were lucky to finally see a lovely Mountain Caracara - beautiful views. The
road we were traveling on was a one lane dirt road and fortunately there wasnÕt
much traffic. Twice we had to back up to a wider spot in order to let a large
truck pass us. Once on narrow
portion of road a Huasos came riding his horse along with a pack of mules.
(Cowboys are called Huasos in Chile and Gauchos in Argentina.) We stopped and
waited and held our breath when we thought some of the mules would fall down
the side of the cliff - but they all made it. Thinking we were safe we
continued on and just around the corner was a shepherd with a large herd of
goats and we really held our breaths as some of the goats just continued
running down the side of the cliff. They are certainly ÒsurefootedÓ animals. We
continued to the end of the road, birded a bit while our bus driver turned the
bus around and then headed back to Santiago. We stopped along the way for
dinner where we were the earliest and only guests and we had a perfectly
wonderful farewell dinner. Of course we all had pisco sours - which the proprietor
assured us were Chilean pisco sours. David sat at the end of the table with
several of us ladies and when we ran out of money for our drinks he Òtook care
of his girlsÓ. We had a fun filled evening. The chef fired up the barbecue and
we served ourselves with as much as we wanted of all kinds of meat and chicken,
plus we had delicious fried potatoes, salad, and bread. It was a lovely end to
our wonderful trip. We got back a bit late but we had a free day the next day
so we could sleep late.
Wednesday 4/9/08 We
had most of today free as we didnÕt fly out until 9 at night. We wanted to take
a city tour but it seemed awfully expensive and not what we wanted so David
offered to take the four of us around the city. He had come a day early and
already spent some time in Santiago. So we took two cabs to the center of the
city and waited at a cafe while he checked into his city hotel. He was staying
an additional week or so. It was fun to sit in the sunshine drinking coffee and
watching the people walk by. When David joined us we started walking around.
The first thing he told us was that the house across the street from us was the
house of torture. People were tortured there under the Pinochet regime - what a
heartrending site. We continued walking around the city seeing the Presidential
palace where Allende was killed in 1973 and where the current president now
lives. We saw the National library, the central market with its amazing
selection of fish and produce, the Cathedral and the central square. Much of Santiago
is new since a lot has been destroyed by earthquakes in the 20th century. The
height of the buildings is amazing, I hope they survive the next quake. We
climbed up the steps in Santa Lucia Park and were rewarded with a wonderful
view of Santiago and the surrounding mountains. At one level is a statue of the
Mapuche hero Laularo who led the Indian insurrection against the Spanish in the
mid 1500s. Darwin described his walk up this hill as a Ònever-failing source of
pleasureÓ. It was special to know we were walking in the footsteps of Darwin.
David then helped us get a cab and we went back to our hotel where we met the
rest of our group. Our bus driver, Jorge came and took us to the airport where
we had some problemÕs checking in as usual. We had our last pisco sours along
with a snack and then sat around and waited. We did do some souvenir shopping,
I found a little figurine that is one of the camelids so I bought that for
myself. Our flight home was uneventful until we got to Los Angeles. There we also
had trouble checking in and it took three planes before they found a working
one to take us home. We later found out we were lucky to get home because we
were flying American and they had a massive shut down with many canceled
flights for several days. Nice to be home - now starts the catching up on mail,
laundry, and yard work. It was a great trip.
I saw 180 species of birds on this
trip.
written by Penelope Bowen from notes and memories - 4/21/08.