I splashed out on a 3 day boat trip along the section of the Magellan Channel NW of Punta Arenas to San Carlos 111 island and the small eco camp where scientists and visitors can stay as part of on-going whale research. Good bunch of people and had a great time, mixing for example with a bio chemist from Boulder USA, a Swiss student and a lovely Italian couple from Florence working as an art lecturer and organic agronomist. Also a Chilean film crew ..so I may be on TV! I’ve no idea if I did appear as had little access to TV and didn’t return to Chile. I had a great time and explored the possibility of staying longer as a fee paying tourist / volunteer but couldn’t contact the right people in time / dates.
The Magellan Straits is named after the Portuguese explorer who ´found´the area in 1520 when he was looking for the Spice Islands. The name, Tierra Del Fuego, derives from the fires of the native peoples that were seen on the shore. Between 1826 – 1834 others in the English ships The Beagle and Adventurer came this way with Darwin on board. The Cold Humboldt and Antarctic Circumpolar currents meet in the Straits and it can be rough! I recall the cold, rain and palette of landscape greys from the sea and islands with forests, bare rock and snow on the tops – all atmospheric and evocative of Magellan et al sailing through these waters. We passed Dawson island which was used as a prison where people were literally left outside in the wild under Pinochet´s military regime and it is now a naval base. The Straits formed along a fault line between the South American and Scotia plates and are 2km wide at the narrowest point by Carlos 111 island.
The Francisco Coloane Marine Park was the first in Chile and recognises part of the Straits as the first known feeding ground of Humpback Whales on the Pacific coast which migrate north to British Columbia to breed. Some on returning south to Antarctic waters, stop here and remain. The Scientists had identified through individual tail fluke and dorsal fin markings about 150 individuals and were investigating what seem to be advanced social behaviours in baleen whales which are usually solitary. The groups are often mother and calf or 2-4 individuals and it is unclear if the groupings are kin based co-operation and / or altruism such as stunning shoals of sardines which comprise their main prey.
Day 1 left at 6.30pm for a 2 hour boat trip to San Isidro lighthouse and a lovely lodge with a fabulous location on a small beach. A phone line between the lighthouse and Punta Arenas was installed in 1905. It is now abandoned but has excellent posters etc of cultural life, whaling and flora etc. Nearby was Darwins Mount where Darwin found ammonites on a hilltop. Sadly, 2 tourists visting the area called in very sick as they had eaten a few mussels poisoned from toxic algae and it was not until 2am that eventually a navy boat came part way to get them to hospital. I think they lived. Two weeks previously, a local fisherman had died after being paralysed from the waist. I never liked shellfish! – and still don’t!
Day 2, an early start for 7 hours in rough seas to Carlos Island. Went around Cape Froward on Brunswick Peninsula which is the southernmost point of the S American mainland. There was lots of spray coming completely over the windows as the the 11m long boat pitched into the heavy seas. I was fine and out on deck a fair bit being Captain Haddock and went below to have lunch and wine! After lunch, we entered sheltered waters to observe whales which was a wonderful experience as I´ve never seen such animals this close as they rose out of the water like a dolphin and lifted the tail before diving.
I watched black browed albatrosses sweep past on long, elegant glides with an occasional 1 or 2 wing beats and touch the sea with one tip – beautiful fliers. The brown skuas are fierce predators and scavengers and they harrass other birds so they drop their prey. There were giant petrels which ran along the sea surface for a long time before taking flight, a pure white male kelp goose with 3 goslings, flightless steamer ducks which cannot fly but paddled furiously across the water, cormorants with a chick and magellanic penguins. These were bobbing and porpoising in the sea in their black and white suits. There were areas of dead trees where their guano around the burrows had killed the vegetation. We passed a sea lion colony lounging on a pebbly beach with bellowing and chasing into the sea, a fur seal swam along and an otter which I sadly did not see.
The Camp was small with about 5 white eco domes made from thick plastic with a wood burning stove (great warmth and ambience but it was not lit til 9pm, and produced with our breathing, loads of condensation so the bed clothes were very damp!) good bathrooms and a kitchen lounge. All domes were built on platforms to reduce environmental damage with linking boardwalks including up to to the observatory.
Day 3 As well as watching whales and having some time to observe a wide sea panorama from a hill top observatory, we had a 5 hour round trip to a glacier entering the sea. It was cold and grey with rain and increasingly calm, ice blue green water with small icebergs. I heard the ice cracking on the boat´s hull as we approached to hack off ice for our whisky drinks and to take back to Camp as a freezer for the food. I well recall standing in the bow sipping the whisky, warmly wrapped up and thinking – wow! – I really am in the Magellan Straits!
Had a quick walk with an excellent scientist, a PhD student from Tierra Del Fuego, to look at the forest and heath – bog vegetation and chat about the ecology of the area, whale research, flora and his Project to look at smarter ways of controlling – removing the introduced American beaver which has caused environmental havoc and may have made its way across the channels to the various islands. The tree seeds are buried under thick humus from the dam activity and do not regenerate. Beavers are smart and show cultural evolution in that the cubs follow suit when the parents use stones and mud to build dams.
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