Santiago (Updated with Pix)

From Mindy:

Buenos Dias, Santiago!  

Left Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, arrived in Santiago by way of Lima, Peru at 6am Friday.  It's been a while since I've flown that long. The first leg was near 8 hours, we stopped to refuel in Lima (but couldnt get off the plane), then continued on for another 6 hours to Santiago.  The only bad part was that my audio on the in-flight entertainment didn't work. But, ah well, I just took advantage of the rare down time and drifted back and forth between sleep and reading a book.  There were about 25 of us on the flight from this trip, so I got a head start on learning a bit about my fellow passengers.

We have students, teachers (and professors), professional geologists, retired couples, photojournalists, artists, etc.  And that's just who I've met so far.  I hear we have people from Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, China, and even Saudi Arabia!  

More than half of the passengers arrived a full day before me and had some free time (and rest) here in Santiago.  As soon as we landed, we all had some adventure bouncing from line to line in the airport... Fill out a customs form, go back to another line because we didn't pay the reciprocal fee on another floor of the airport... Back to the passport line... Get the bags and go through customs... Nothing to declare... Walk across the street to the airport... Wait in line to check in, drop bags, grab a cup of tea, and head to a bus for an all-day bird watching tour of the Chilean coastline.

As tired as I was, the bird watching was great. We stretched our legs on hikes, got lots of sun and fresh air, and learned a lot about central Chile's ecosystems.  On the drive out to the coast we went through terrain that looked very much like northern California in summer... Golden rolling hills, a savanna type climate, acacia trees, but also some interesting cactus plants that reminded me do the Sonoran desert in Arizona.  We were told this range of mountains is an east-west range called the Chacapuco.

Chilean Palms (click to enlarge)

At La Campana National Park we saw some of the oldest palm trees in the world.  They are Chilean Palms and can be as old as 800-1000 years old!  We saw some neat birds, too... Finches, mockingbirds, woodpeckers, etc.

Peruvian pelicans (click to enlarge)

Next we stopped at a small river ecosystem. The mouth of the Aconcagua river in the region of ConCon.  There we saw gulls that migrate from north America, white-backed stilts, black skimmers, and Peruvian pelicans.

Finally we made it to the coastline. The fresh salty air was nice, but right next to the beach was a huge industrial complex making lots of haze... A coal plant, a cement factory, maybe a steel factory, etc.  if you kept your eyes towards the ocean, you could almost forget the plants were there.  It was pretty good bird watching, though. 

Penguins and cactus! (click to enlarge)

Starfish (click to enlarge)

Here we spotted our first penguins. They were on a small rock island just about 100 meters off do the rocky beach. Close enough to get a few photos. There were cactus plants growing on the rock island, so I made sure to get a pictures of a penguin next to a cactus.  In some of the tide pools we saw starfish, muscles, kelp beds, and zebra snails.

At the end of the day we had dinner at a little cafe in downtown Santiago, and finally got back to the hotel to take a hard-earned shower.  The real adventures start on Saturday, the 29th of December when we fly to the Falkland Islands to eventually board our ship and start the expedition.  We have a great group of folks and I can't wait to meet the rest of our group.