Further Upwards

May from 29 to 30, 2013
The journey : Valparaiso - Vina del Mar - Zapallar - La Serena - Reserva National Penguina de Humbolt - Vallenar


One more picture of Valparaiso.
Having left I drove upwards along the coastal road, which yesterday had still been half covered with water. And did not reach very far. Unnoticed Valparaiso turned over into a town named - Vina dela Mar. The traffic was quite heavy and it was time to start looking for an overnight place.


A shady overnight place before Zapallar. And after several days the morning was sunny...


Along Panamericana upwards, towards the north.




Probably the The Pacific coast does not lack of the wind because in many places the eye catches wind mills. And in Chile there are no nuclear power plants , as the danger of earthquakes is large enough.


The motorway passes through the city.




And over the mountains back to inland.


Turning to the side road again and according to the map, it should take to the next National Park, about 50 kilometres away.

 Humboldt Penguins National Reserve was established in 1990. The Humbolt penguins live on the islands of Chile and Peru, near the coast of the Pacific Ocean. (http://www.penguins.cl/humboldt-penguins.htm) and
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_Penguin). The next morning I reach the village of Punta de Choros.

The main street.


And the side street takes to the port.


There is silence at the port. Complete silence.


According to the signboard this seems to be the right place, but the door is firmly shut. But thanks to the locals I learn that one can visit the penguins and other animals and birds as soon as people - to have a full boat of them - have gathered, it is about 10-12 visitors. So – one must just wait.


This is good news. And that it is very likely that we shall have not that boat but a larger one. In the long run more tourist-looking people appear.


Finally, the larger the boat arrives. From somewhere life jackets are found and the journey begins.


The direction is just towards the ocean. And in the beginning – no penguin islands in front.






Isla Damas.




Further there are cormorants and pelicans on the cliffs - but no penguins. The fact is that the penguins are found by the smell and there is no this kind of smell on this island. So there's no point to look for.

After an hour we go back to the boat and the journey continues towards the next island.










Isla Choros. And from afar we can see that there are some of the penguins. Moving around on the shore. In one place there are six penguins and a bit further away - another six. So it is not their season here either. We will not get closer and landing is not planned here on this island.


We move some more time around the island between the rocks, and then back towards the shore, the trip took a total of 4 hours.

The end of May is not really the best time for observing penguins, but nevertheless we could enjoy whales and sea lions and a lot of cormorants and other birds. Pictures are, of course, again mostly gray, because the entire Pacific shore is foggy and damp.


In inland before night the sky turns more colourful. In the evening in Chile, somewhere between Carrizalillo and Domeyko.

Continued ...