4-28 I arrived at 6am to Santiago and boarded a connecting bus to La Serena, a city north of Santiago along the coast. It was a beautiful bus ride, as all Chilean bus rides seem to be with view of the wild coast on the left and the big snow covered Andes (6000m/19,500ft) peaks on the right. The landscape became drier until the nearby hills were covered in cacti. I arrived in early afternoon to La Serena, so I had time to explore the city a bit. Immediately, it reminded me a whole lot of southern California. It has a Mediterranean type climate, so getting off the bus I was greeted with the warmest air I have experienced since early last September in Colorado and palm trees. The resemblance to california started right away with a huge strip mall right outside the bus station and a giant hyper lider (owned by walmart) as well as a mcdonalds. There palm trees and blooming flowers (including hibiscus) everywhere. The buildings are really cool bc they are adobe-ish and most a cool shade of red, pink, orange, or yellow with unique windows and doors. The architecture, colors, vegetation, and feel reminded me a bit of certain parts of southern california or even Tucson or even parts of Italy. My hostel had a nice open air courtyard where you could eat and chill. But don´t get me wrong, it still wasn´t super warm. It was a bit overcast and I was okay in a t-shirt, but by night, you definitely needed a jacket. The small city has 29 churches, and I went to mass at 1 of them. This is also the first place that I experienced much cheaper food. In South America, the further north you go, the cheaper it gets. I got a big lunch here with steak or fish, salad, rice, and bread, and a big glass of wine for 3 bucks.
Walking around the city really reminded me of Tucson. I love the feel of the desert, the scenery of the desert. There is just something I really love about the desert, especially desert with mountains. Part of it is probably bc I am a Colorado boy at heart so I love dry air and bright blue cloudless skies. But I think part of it is bc I have strong memories of Marana and Tucson from my childhood. The desert takes me back to hanging out with the Halbachs. To grandma and grandpa´s farm, to living it large with Mary, to the scrumptious food of Diane´s, to the Halbach Castle with the cousins, to the shopping sprees with Aunt Lucille, to the intensity of the wildcat cheering get togethers to tours of the farm with Ted, and of course to the road trip there through the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona with Mom and bro. Those are some of my best childhood memories. Whatever it is, I always especially like it when I arrive at mountain desertscapes.
The city was small and the bright buildings and narrow streets were easily explored in an afternoon. I visited some of the colonial churches (La Serena is the 2nd oldest city in Chile, so it is full of colonoial architecture). Also walked a long a long blvd with a central pedestrian path with greek and roman statues lining the path.
At the hostel I ran into a couple from New Mexico that I had met trekking before. They were probably in their 50´s and said how much it reminded them of new mexico, and the lady was especially happy to be back to warm days and cool nights, just like NM. They too had been in situations like mine at Antuco where park rangers had not wanted them to do treks. At one place, they had to sign a piece of paper that said they would not do the trek. Of course they were equally well prepared, but she said she had told her husband, one more cold trek and then it was time to head north to the warm. So there they were, enjoying the warmth and flowers.
4-29 I had booked a tour to go out the Reserva Nacional Penguino de Humboldt for 8 in the morning. At 830 There was still no sign of the van, so I was getting nervous that they forgot me so I called the number I had, and the guy said, esta bien, it´s all good. Then come 9am, still no van. Around 920am, the van rolled up much to my relief. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, the time had changed that morning, so my watch was fast an hour. It was sort of a last minute change of time, and I had no way of knowing without having the internet or newspapers. And the tour agency hadn´t even told me. The funny thing, is that a month or so ago when I was in Puerto Natales, the rest of the world that changes time, changed (including the USA). Everyone´s cell phones and computers in Chile changed as well. This is bc it was the time that Chile always had and was supposed to change. But the president had declared, in a show of power I guess, that the time would change later. But bc everyone´s electronic devices changed, people supposed to catch the 8am buses to the NP missed them bc they had changed their watches thinking the time was changing. Just kind of one of those funny things with a semi-dictator led country.
Anyways, it was an absolute gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky. We had a 2 hour drive north going through beautiful desert scenery complete with large cacti and the coastal range as well as coastal scenery with large crashing waves. There were even some sand dunes. We spotted some Guanacos, a rare sight in the deserts around here. When we reached Punto Chorros, we hopped in little boats to make the trip out to Isla Damas and Isla Chorros. On the way out, we were surrounded by a pod of Bottlenose dolphins. I was so HAPPY for this! Dolphins have always been one of my favorite animals, but I have never seen Bottlenose dolphins which are the most playful and some of the biggest. I had only seen common and spinner and river dolphins before. So this was an exceptional treat. True to their normal behaviour, they swam powerfully around the boats, quite curious and kind of showing off, jumping around a bit so that at times you could see the whole body of the dolphin out of the water. To see them swimming around with all their power and grace in the water was truly amazing. There were lots of them and they swam all around the boat.
Once at the island, we saw a huge colony of sea lions, complete with young pups hanging out on the jagged rocks. Further along we saw lots of the highly endangered Humboldt Penguin staying further up on the mountain, very wary of the sea lions below. We saw lots of other of the "cooler" big species of birds including Peruvian boobies (and fluffy babies), commorants, and vultures. We were also very lucky and caught a glimpse of a sea otter. As we went along the rocky island we took the boat into a couple caves carved out by the waves of the Pacific.
After wildlife watching along Isla de Chorros, we headed to Isla Damas (looks like a female profile from a distance) to hang out. I went for a short hike and saw 2 gorgeous white sand beaches. One of the sweet things about this area was in one line of vision I could see the cacti on the island in front of me, a white sand beach with turquoise waters (like Thailand), the dark pacific, dry mountains and sand dunes on the land behind the ocean and in the farther distance, snow covered peaks (from that big storm I ran into on Antuco Volcano). Amazing really.
One of the best excursions I have been on here. An awesome wildlife experience. One of the better wildlife type safaris I have been on for a long time. The whole trip you were constantly spotting wildlife. And of course the penguins are so cute and the dolphins so spectacular. It was also a treat to be visiting these islands bc this is a place you study in Ecology. The reason these islands have so much wildlife and the reason that the mainland is so dry is due to the ecologically famous humboldt current. It´s a very cold upwelling current that brings lots of cold nutrient rich water to the surface which leads to an abundance of fish such as sardines and that of course leads to the abundance of animals like dolphins, otters, penguins, and sea lions that feed on them. The cold current also affects the climate in the area which is why it´s so dry on the mainland. Further up the coast it´s so dry, like near the Atacama desert that it hasn´t rained in a very long time, though they get a foggy mist every morning.
After the trip we had lunch in the rustic, yet charming little desert village of Punto Chorros at a restaurant in an olive garden where we were served delicious fresh fish.
Back in Serena, I went to mass at another church and then had a fun time with some Aussies (studying at a university in Santiago) who had bought too much wine and beer and were all too happy to share it with me.
Walking around the city really reminded me of Tucson. I love the feel of the desert, the scenery of the desert. There is just something I really love about the desert, especially desert with mountains. Part of it is probably bc I am a Colorado boy at heart so I love dry air and bright blue cloudless skies. But I think part of it is bc I have strong memories of Marana and Tucson from my childhood. The desert takes me back to hanging out with the Halbachs. To grandma and grandpa´s farm, to living it large with Mary, to the scrumptious food of Diane´s, to the Halbach Castle with the cousins, to the shopping sprees with Aunt Lucille, to the intensity of the wildcat cheering get togethers to tours of the farm with Ted, and of course to the road trip there through the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona with Mom and bro. Those are some of my best childhood memories. Whatever it is, I always especially like it when I arrive at mountain desertscapes.
The city was small and the bright buildings and narrow streets were easily explored in an afternoon. I visited some of the colonial churches (La Serena is the 2nd oldest city in Chile, so it is full of colonoial architecture). Also walked a long a long blvd with a central pedestrian path with greek and roman statues lining the path.
At the hostel I ran into a couple from New Mexico that I had met trekking before. They were probably in their 50´s and said how much it reminded them of new mexico, and the lady was especially happy to be back to warm days and cool nights, just like NM. They too had been in situations like mine at Antuco where park rangers had not wanted them to do treks. At one place, they had to sign a piece of paper that said they would not do the trek. Of course they were equally well prepared, but she said she had told her husband, one more cold trek and then it was time to head north to the warm. So there they were, enjoying the warmth and flowers.
4-29 I had booked a tour to go out the Reserva Nacional Penguino de Humboldt for 8 in the morning. At 830 There was still no sign of the van, so I was getting nervous that they forgot me so I called the number I had, and the guy said, esta bien, it´s all good. Then come 9am, still no van. Around 920am, the van rolled up much to my relief. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, the time had changed that morning, so my watch was fast an hour. It was sort of a last minute change of time, and I had no way of knowing without having the internet or newspapers. And the tour agency hadn´t even told me. The funny thing, is that a month or so ago when I was in Puerto Natales, the rest of the world that changes time, changed (including the USA). Everyone´s cell phones and computers in Chile changed as well. This is bc it was the time that Chile always had and was supposed to change. But the president had declared, in a show of power I guess, that the time would change later. But bc everyone´s electronic devices changed, people supposed to catch the 8am buses to the NP missed them bc they had changed their watches thinking the time was changing. Just kind of one of those funny things with a semi-dictator led country.
Anyways, it was an absolute gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky. We had a 2 hour drive north going through beautiful desert scenery complete with large cacti and the coastal range as well as coastal scenery with large crashing waves. There were even some sand dunes. We spotted some Guanacos, a rare sight in the deserts around here. When we reached Punto Chorros, we hopped in little boats to make the trip out to Isla Damas and Isla Chorros. On the way out, we were surrounded by a pod of Bottlenose dolphins. I was so HAPPY for this! Dolphins have always been one of my favorite animals, but I have never seen Bottlenose dolphins which are the most playful and some of the biggest. I had only seen common and spinner and river dolphins before. So this was an exceptional treat. True to their normal behaviour, they swam powerfully around the boats, quite curious and kind of showing off, jumping around a bit so that at times you could see the whole body of the dolphin out of the water. To see them swimming around with all their power and grace in the water was truly amazing. There were lots of them and they swam all around the boat.
Once at the island, we saw a huge colony of sea lions, complete with young pups hanging out on the jagged rocks. Further along we saw lots of the highly endangered Humboldt Penguin staying further up on the mountain, very wary of the sea lions below. We saw lots of other of the "cooler" big species of birds including Peruvian boobies (and fluffy babies), commorants, and vultures. We were also very lucky and caught a glimpse of a sea otter. As we went along the rocky island we took the boat into a couple caves carved out by the waves of the Pacific.
After wildlife watching along Isla de Chorros, we headed to Isla Damas (looks like a female profile from a distance) to hang out. I went for a short hike and saw 2 gorgeous white sand beaches. One of the sweet things about this area was in one line of vision I could see the cacti on the island in front of me, a white sand beach with turquoise waters (like Thailand), the dark pacific, dry mountains and sand dunes on the land behind the ocean and in the farther distance, snow covered peaks (from that big storm I ran into on Antuco Volcano). Amazing really.
One of the best excursions I have been on here. An awesome wildlife experience. One of the better wildlife type safaris I have been on for a long time. The whole trip you were constantly spotting wildlife. And of course the penguins are so cute and the dolphins so spectacular. It was also a treat to be visiting these islands bc this is a place you study in Ecology. The reason these islands have so much wildlife and the reason that the mainland is so dry is due to the ecologically famous humboldt current. It´s a very cold upwelling current that brings lots of cold nutrient rich water to the surface which leads to an abundance of fish such as sardines and that of course leads to the abundance of animals like dolphins, otters, penguins, and sea lions that feed on them. The cold current also affects the climate in the area which is why it´s so dry on the mainland. Further up the coast it´s so dry, like near the Atacama desert that it hasn´t rained in a very long time, though they get a foggy mist every morning.
After the trip we had lunch in the rustic, yet charming little desert village of Punto Chorros at a restaurant in an olive garden where we were served delicious fresh fish.
Back in Serena, I went to mass at another church and then had a fun time with some Aussies (studying at a university in Santiago) who had bought too much wine and beer and were all too happy to share it with me.
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