Zelma’s Trip

Having admired the wonderful surroundings over breakfast we headed into the local fishing village where we got a boat out to Pan d´Azucar with two of the local fishermen.  It was great being on the sea and after a short while we got to the island.  The island looked two tone in colour with grey rock covered with white.  From a distance it looked like strange rock colouration but it was actually guano (bird poo) from the multitude of birds which inhabit the island.  The extent of this was amazing until we saw a penguin poo and realised how there was so much of it!  The penguins were humbolt penguins and it was great to see so many of them in the wild.  There were also pelicans everywhere and various other seabirds on the rocks, in the sea and in the air around us.  The island is protected there is no access allowed on foot so we continued in the boat.  As we passed more penguins we were treated to three sealions, a mother, father and baby who were sunning themselves very close to us on a large rock.  They put on quite a show with the male making obligatory grunting sounds every few minutes.  We left the sealions and continued round where we saw a sea otter swimming.  This was the rarest animal we saw and we were extremely lucky as there are only one thousand left in the wild in Chile!  As we continued around to the head of the island the rocks changed shape and then we realised that what we were actually looking at was a whole colony of sealions.  At the corner point where the sealions were resting the water level was lower over rocks and we turned around and headed back to the shore.  On the way back from the island there was a strange shape in the water like a shark fin.  I pointed it out and the fisherman steered the boat over towards it.  It was possible that it was a killer whale, albeit slightly unlikely, and was hard ot make out.  As we got closer we could just see it was a sealion with its fin poking out.  For a moment we thought it was dead but then it twisted and sped off.  It turned out just to be having a little nap!  The whole trip was absolutely amazing and we couldn´t have asked for more wildlife.

Back on dry land we headed into Chanaral town for lunch.  The town didn´t create the best impression being rather poor and desolate.  We had an okay lunch though and headed back to the National Park.  On the park road we went passed some locals hitchhiking and stopped to pick them up.  Although I thought there were two people there were actually three and it was somewhat cramped for Mum in the back with them.  As we got towards the village they pointed out the information centre and Mum translated this as them wanting to be dropped off.  There was a little bit of confusion as I pulled over and it transpired they were just trying to be informative!  When we had dropped them off at the correct location we bought some fish from the local fishermen and headed back to the cabana.

Having put the fish in the fridge we headed back to the information centre where the ranger hobbled over the road to us and gave us a map.  He told us how to get to the mirador (viewpoint) and we headed off in our van.  He had been muttering something about keys and, as we turned off the main road in the park, we realised that he was trying to tell us that we needed a key to get through the gate.  So we headed back to the information centre where, a somewhat amused, ranger gave us the key.  Back on the road we got to the track and opened the gate.  It was fun driving up the sandy off road type track and we eventually got to a parking area.  When we got out the views down over the coast were stunning.  We were looking out to sea when Dad pointed back to the van where a small Andean fox was wandering about.

In the evening we barbequed the fish we had bought from the fishermen and rounded off the perfect day with fresh fish and a bottle of wine.