Island of Chiloe
After a nearly two day sail from Selkirk Island, of the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, we finally arrived at the Island of Chiloe, the northern gateway to the Patagonian fjords. In the early morning we anchored off the historical city of Ancud, the old Spanish fort and capital of the last bastion of Spanish rule in the South Pacific. The verdant temperate rain forest and picturesque hillside farms overlooking the channel were a pleasant experience after the extensive desert of Peru and northern Chile. Once ashore we all enjoyed the Chiloe air—clean, wet and distinctive with a hint of the earth and forest of this magical island.
The visit to Chepu Reserve was remarkable and included a misty boat trip along a submerged Notofagus forest, sunken by the 9.5 earthquake in 1960. The boatman announced that the weather would change for the better by midday. As we followed the river down to the Pacific Ocean, the morning drizzle gave way to a glorious sunshine as we observed birds and hiked through a muddy oxen path until we reached a solitary exposed beach with crashing surf and shipwreck. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of austral parakeets, sierra finch, chucaos, rails, fio-fios, Chilean pigeons, turkey and black head vultures, as well as those of forest with colorful notros, red bark arrayans, canelos, coigues and fuchsias. When we finally made it back to the look out, our host surprised us with a Chilean style lunch with pisco sour, and plenty of red wine and local dishes. We were all happy to return to the ship, where we learned about the current mythology of Chiloe, as well as the remarkable work of wild cat specialist and National Geographic researcher and conservationist Jim Samerson and Constanza Napolitano to save the endangered small wild cats of Chiloe, the Altiplano, and around the world.
After a nearly two day sail from Selkirk Island, of the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, we finally arrived at the Island of Chiloe, the northern gateway to the Patagonian fjords. In the early morning we anchored off the historical city of Ancud, the old Spanish fort and capital of the last bastion of Spanish rule in the South Pacific. The verdant temperate rain forest and picturesque hillside farms overlooking the channel were a pleasant experience after the extensive desert of Peru and northern Chile. Once ashore we all enjoyed the Chiloe air—clean, wet and distinctive with a hint of the earth and forest of this magical island.
The visit to Chepu Reserve was remarkable and included a misty boat trip along a submerged Notofagus forest, sunken by the 9.5 earthquake in 1960. The boatman announced that the weather would change for the better by midday. As we followed the river down to the Pacific Ocean, the morning drizzle gave way to a glorious sunshine as we observed birds and hiked through a muddy oxen path until we reached a solitary exposed beach with crashing surf and shipwreck. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of austral parakeets, sierra finch, chucaos, rails, fio-fios, Chilean pigeons, turkey and black head vultures, as well as those of forest with colorful notros, red bark arrayans, canelos, coigues and fuchsias. When we finally made it back to the look out, our host surprised us with a Chilean style lunch with pisco sour, and plenty of red wine and local dishes. We were all happy to return to the ship, where we learned about the current mythology of Chiloe, as well as the remarkable work of wild cat specialist and National Geographic researcher and conservationist Jim Samerson and Constanza Napolitano to save the endangered small wild cats of Chiloe, the Altiplano, and around the world.
