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Expedition Stories
Our fleet navigates the world in search of adventure. These are the stories they bring back…
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Previous Reports
8/1/2004
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Sea Voyager
From the Sea Voyager in South America
Curu Wildlife Refuge and Tortuga Island Tropical forests are not necessarily the rainy jungles of Jurassic Park. Actually, in Costa Rica, there are three types of forests: tropical dry, tropical moist and tropical wet, aside from some other twelve variations known as life zones. Today, our introduction to the Costa Rican wildlife started in a tropical dry forest, yet it wasn’t dry at all, since during the month of August, while in the U.S. it is summertime, Costa Ricans are in what they call their “winter” or rather, their rainy season. Thus the forest we visited was quite lush. The sky was cloudy, there were ponds and creeks in the forest and the air was hot and humid. Hard to imagine that a few months from now, beginning in December, this area of the country will undergo a long drought of about six months and most of the trees will loose their leaves in order to save water as creeks and rivers will dry out completely and animals will have to migrate to greener pastures. Because of this marked dry season, the topical dry forest has practically disappeared due to human activity (slash and burn agriculture) and because it was the first area to be colonized by the Spaniards. Our exploration of Costa Rica started this morning with a visit to Curu Wildlife Refuge in the Nicoya Peninsula, a 1,214 hectare cattle ranch that also contains a mango plantation and a selective timbering operation. Aside from its productive activities, the ranch owners have been involved in the protection and reintroduction of endangered scarlet macaws and spider monkeys into the wild. The sound ecological agricultural practices have made of this place a real gem for nature lovers and bird watchers, who can walk through the protected mangroves and the forest trails in search of wildlife. Upon our arrival at Curu we had to change shoes since this was a wet landing. Some of us had not finished changing when we heard a scarlet macaw right above our heads. It didn’t take long for us to spot it on top of a palm tree then we divided into three groups and started the morning hikes. Iguanas, bats, crocodiles, a boa constrictor, white face and howler monkeys, caracaras, rufus nape wrens were some of the residents we were able to see, and what a joy that was! After lunch we sailed to Isla Tortuga where we had our first opportunity to kayak and enjoy an afternoon on the beach: in the end it was both a relaxing and exciting day
3/4/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Chilean Fjords For most of us from up north, the southern end of South America would probably be referred to as the “bottom of the world.” Yesterday evening we boarded the Endeavour and cast the lines in Ushuaia. Soon we were sailing in to the Beagle Channel. We are now exploring the area of Tierra del Fuego and the surroundings, which still stand as one of the more remote destinations in the world. The number of islands and the myriads and labyrinth of twisting deep fjords are endless and perfect for exploration. As we woke up this morning, we were near the deep fjord Seno Chico. Together with our Chilean pilots, the Captain took us almost up to the glacier front. Even though the rain was slowly drizzling, the scenery was pounding over us. A small and narrow fjord, which ends with a large and actively calving glacier, all together surrounded by high mountains, cliff slopes bright green of notofagus trees, mosses and grass. A perfect setting. This is also an area where the place name of almost every island is tied to some early exploration. Cape Horn is named after the Dutch town Horn, Magellan Strait named after the first worldwide circumnavigation. Of course, the master of all navigators also visited this part of the world, as James Cook on his first voyage came through with the Endeavour and named some of the islands. Still the main reason why a lot of English place names dominate for the many islands is, of course, to do with the ship Beagle , who made much of the mapping of the area. Captain FitzRoy was the man who, twice in the earlier part of 19th century, ventured the area. On the last voyage, a young man was onboard who later came to have a major impact on the society. We sailed today nearby Cordillera Darwin. In the afternoon we entered a sheltered fjord, Seno Hyatt, and it was time for more adventure. Now we dropped our Zodiac fleet. Two large glaciers drop down into the fjord. It was still drizzling, but calving ice, sea lions and a few birds unique to the area made this wet outing a great experience. The evening ended with Captain’s Welcome cocktails and dinner.
3/6/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Torres del Paine We arrived last night to Puerto Natales and made an early start for the drive to one of the wonders of the world, Torres del Paine. On the southern edge of the high peaks of the Andes, the scenery really stands out. As we left in the morning it was still dark, but after about one hour of driving we found ourselves on the Patagonian steppe. The flat grasslands are almost endless in this part of the world and not too far back the rheas and guanacos roamed the area. Today they have been replaced by sheep and cattle grazing the grass. A short stop was made near the boarder crossing to Argentina, at Cerro Castillo. As always, the attractive gift shop was given much attention. Now we turned north and headed towards the mountains. Here we sighted our first guanacos and Darwin’s rheas. Soon we arrived at the entrance to Torres del Paine (Blue towers) National Park. Inside the park we stopped to enjoy the majestic waterfalls and scenery. Not to forget the flamingos at Swan Lake. For lunch we used the lodge Cabanas del Paine and now at last it started to clear up. Stuffed with good food and Chilean wine, we started to make our way back through the park, but with several more stops to catch the beauty of the higher peaks as the clouds slowly slipped away. We were also rewarded by some very close encounters with gray fox and fighting guanacos. Several Andean condors together with black-chested buzzard-eagles were also now using the winds. Before we arrived back at Puerto Natales, we made a short stop at Milodon Cave. The Milodon was a huge ground-living sloth found in this part of the world. It became extinct during historical times and in 1893, intact pieces of its skin were found in this specific cave. The cave itself is very impressive. As we arrived to the pier with the ship, black-necked swans and bright Chile widgeons greeted our return.
3/8/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Tortel, the Chilean Fjords Our voyage northward through the maze of islands and waterways of the Chilean Fjords continues. This is an area first charted by Robert FitzRoy on two epic voyages of exploration aboard H.M.S. Beagle . FitzRoy’s charts and sailing directions were so thorough and accurate that they guided navigation for the next one hundred years. On the second of these voyages Captain FitzRoy shared his dining table with the young Naturalist Charles Darwin. As we moved through the fjords, our appreciation of this area was expanded by Naturalist Ian Bullock, who spoke on the Indians of southern Chile, and by one of our two Chilean Coastal Pilots, Jorge Roman Fariña, who told of the navigation history of these waters. When we arrived at our afternoon destination, the small and remote village of Tortel, we had reached 48° S. latitude, comparable to southern Washington in the other Hemisphere. Tortel is a small village of houses without internal roads, connected by a system of wooden boardwalks. Not a television antenna nor satellite receiving dish was to be seen. The traditional economy is based on the harvest of Southern cypress trees. It is one of the few places where this is still allowed. The boardwalks are lined with native vegetation, most particularly bushes of fuschia adorned with bright red and purple flowers that attract the attention of green-backed firecrowns, the world’s southernmost hummingbirds, and of numerous camera-wielding visitors. So too did the happy group of children seen above, playing with their puppy and happy to share this brief moment in their lives with the visitors from afar.
3/10/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Pumalin Park After cruising north overnight we spent the morning at sea before arriving in Caleta Gonzalo and heading ashore to explore Pumalin Park, a fine example of environmental philanthropy. Created in 1991 by a North American clothing entrepreneur, the park now covers over 700,000 acres and protects large stands of evergreen temperate rainforest. It also provides public access for recreation and tourism while promoting sustainable land use practices in and around the park. We boarded minibuses and headed south along the Carretera Austral to trailheads within the park. As some of us have discovered in the past few days, these forests would be impenetrable without the trails, so we were glad of the opportunity to hike through the rainforest, viewing spectacular waterfalls (pictured) and native wildlife such as the diminutive bird the Chucao tapaculo. We passed through stands of the largest, oldest, and most magnificent of the South American conifers: the alerce. It grows in moist to very wet forests, from sea level to the slopes of the Andes. Alerce grows very slowly, but reaches great size and age. It reaches barely a metre in diameter at an age of 1,000 years, and trees in excess of 4.5 metres diameter, 45 metres in height, and 3,600 years in age are known. While it is known as the Southern redwood, it is not closely related to the North American redwood. It produces a straight-grained, rot-resistant, reddish-brown wood that was formerly highly prized. Today, alerce is protected by decree of the Chilean Government and as much as 35% of the remaining stands are found within the Pumalin Park.
3/12/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Puerto Montt, Chile After traversing the Golfo de Ancud during the night, we found ourselves alongside a pier for the first time in almost a week. We had arrived in Puerto Montt, a bustling town of some importance due to the bottleneck created here by the sea and the Andes. Virtually every person, package, and vehicle has to pass through this relatively small city on their way north or south. As a result the markets thrive, while the traffic stalls. Still, if you must be stuck in traffic, there aren’t many cities that can offer more distracting scenery out every window and in every mirror. The city lies at the mouth of an impressive fjord and in the shadows of several snow-capped volcanic peaks. One such volcano, Volcán Osorno, is the centerpiece of Vincente Perez Rosales National Park, to which we paid a visit this morning. As a result of the volcano’s numerous eruptions, the Petrohué River’s former route has been blocked, thus forming the beautiful turquoise-colored Lagos Todos Los Santos. This stunning lake gets its unique hue from the surplus of minerals dissolved into the water table, mostly copper and magnesium. Of course, the black sandy beaches lining the shores certainly add to the lake’s appeal as well. Eventually, like us, the river still manages to return to the sea south of Puerto Montt. Along the way it cuts some spectacular channels through the lava flows and produces numerous rapids and natural chutes that left a few of us trying to imagine what the ride would be like in one of our trusty kayaks. Fortunately, we left that adventure for the more foolhardy and made our way back to the Endeavour in Puerto Montt. En route we managed a few more wildlife sightings…well, one “wild” and one domesticated animal sighting, I should say. First off, swimming upriver, from rock to rock, our sharp-eyed birders spotted a couple of torrent ducks. These attractive birds are powerful swimmers and known to frequent class IV or stronger rapids. A little further down the road, we passed a small llama farm near the park entrance. Though obviously not wild like the guanacos seen earlier in Patagonia, the llamas offered us a chance to view some of the guanaco’s relatives up close and without disturbance. The llama is thought to have been separated from the guanaco species several thousand years ago and has played a significant role in South American history. Now, strictly a domesticated species, these animals were the beasts of burden for the Incan empire which likely began selectively breeding the camelids almost 6,000 years ago. When the Spaniards first arrived in the new world, they reported that over 300,000 llamas worked the Incan silver trails daily often under loads topping the 200 pound mark; an impressive testimony to these animals’ fortitude and usefulness in the difficult terrain found throughout Chile.
12/24/2004
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National Geographic Sea Bird
From the Sea Bird in Baja California
Isla Santa Catalina and Isla San Jose Isolated islands are imaginary evolutionary laboratories where arriving species face new circumstances and change over time, in some cases evolving out previous attributes. Today, some of us hiking the breadth of Isla Santa Catalina in the Sea of Cortez were fortunate to find one of our planet’s iconic evolutionary creations - the rattleless rattlesnake, only found on this one island in the entire world. It is marvelous to ponder this loss of a rattling adaptation once necessary for survival. Visitors to Galápagos may have seen the flightless cormorant. Flightlessness has derived on many islands (and in many cases, grounded species have gone extinct with man’s arrival). There have also been pigeons, ducks, geese, rails, parrots, ibises, wrens and other flying creatures that have lost their ability to fly. River dolphins living in murky freshwater have gone nearly blind, as have insects that live their entire lives in lava tubes. In some preserved remote places, wildness has disappeared and animals maintain genetic tameness in otherwise potentially predatory situations. Rattlesnakes developed keratin buttons at the end of their tails to warn off large mammalian predators of the toxic saliva they can deliver; similar snake species that lived without such large animals present never evolved a rattling alert. Rattlesnakes arrived to the fragment of desert that is Santa Catalina Island fully rattling, but over time devolved their threatening maraca shake; without any large predators present, it has evidently become a selective disadvantage to keep rattling. Catalina is a showcase of evolution, endemism, gigantism and isolation and the island’s preservation is a high priority in Lindblad Expeditions’ Baja Forever! campaign. All nine of Catalina’s reptile species are unique to the island, but without a doubt the rattleless rattlesnake, Crotalus catalinensis, is the most intriguing and emblematic. This creature is a living symbol of the free flow of life on our planet in a time when so many organisms are impacted by the progress and control of man. With a highflying dolphin encounter in rolling seas we later entered San Jose Channel and tucked in to a protected bay to celebrate Christmas Eve ashore with a dinner barbecue. The near-full moon rose as we celebrated the holidays, as the snakes of Santa Catalina continued their uninterrupted evolutionary traverse through the ages.
3/5/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Seno de las Montañas, the Chilean Fjords It is called a temperate rain forest for good reason! In the Temperate Zone, the prevailing westerly winds pass over a relatively warm ocean, picking up a load of water vapor. When the moist winds strike the west side of a continent, the air is deflected upward, cools, and drops its moisture as precipitation. The result: a temperate rainforest. Were we at comparable latitude in North America, we would be at the northern tip of Vancouver Island, one of the dampest areas of that continent. Here in southern Chile the coastline is indented with myriad long, narrow fjords. As the glaciers of the Ice Ages waxed and waned, these valleys were repeatedly filled with glacial ice, each advance of the ice carving away more of the underlying rock to produce the magnificent scenery that we now enjoy. The lower slopes are covered with Southern Beech forest, but at this latitude, the tree line is close to the sea and the upper slopes show a mantle of tundra-like shrubs, moss, and lichens. And above that, we find a zone of perpetual snow and ice. Many of the fjords end with a glacial face at sea level (a tide-water glacier), the end of an icy journey that began with snowfall in the mountains above, or perhaps on the great Patagonian Ice Sheet. Other masses of ice spill over the steep slopes as hanging glaciers. Waterfalls and cascades descend spectacularly, fueled by the melting of ice and snow and by the late-summer rains. Our afternoon Zodiac cruises in Seno de las Montañas gave us close looks at ice and forest, the blue and white of the ice contrasting with the greens of the forest highlighted by splashes of color of late-season flowering plants. One of the brightest was the stunning Fuschia magellanica seen above, adorning the forest margins. It is one of the few plants of this region to make it into our gardens at home. The cruise was capped by close-up views of immense Andean condors.
3/7/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Kirke Narrows/ Evan’s Island After leaving Puerto Natales in the wee hours of the morning, Endeavour cruised back towards Kirke Narrows. At any other time than completely slack tide, this narrow channel of 150 meters has a huge current running through. It is imperative that ships passing through here get their timing right, as this precarious waterway causes whirlpools and outwashes running at 7 knots. Our fleet of Zodiacs decided to brave the waters before slack tide, cruising along the shoreline, enjoying the rich vegetation of plants like wild fuchsia, and South American fur seals porpoising through the water ahead of the Zodiacs. The climax of our excursion - watching the ship, graced with a backdrop of green vegetation, push firmly through the waters of the narrow. This afternoon we arrived at a place called Evans Island, a place that would afford us the first opportunity of the trip to kayak!! Our yellow kayaks were lowered into the water, and the guests were shuttled out to the platform for an afternoon of peaceful bliss paddling through the black, yet clear, water, exploring the shoreline at their own pace. What has been going on underneath this water we have been traveling through? Everyday on our Zodiac cruises, we are amazed at the clarity of the water, being able to see far down the kelp stipes, but still not quite discerning the bottom. Undersea Specialist Dennis Cornejo, and myself as dive buddy, put answers into inquisitive minds today, as we dove off of Evans Island. What an amazing environment! Down a steep rocky wall we went, falling slowly and letting it all sink in. The bottom was littered with different types of mussel shells, a graveyard for mother of pearl jewelry. The live muscles gathered together in massive bunches covering much of the rocky walls. Within the muscle beds, a place for hide and seek as nudibranches and fish can have a quiet moment for themselves, seeking refuge from vicious predators. However the muscles never have time to relax, and large predatory sea stars moved everywhere, just waiting to choose where to feast next. The best surprise of the day was this spiny spider crab. With a face only a mother could love, and a tenacious disposition, this crab often ends up on dinner plates all over South America, as it comprises a large part of the fisheries in this part of the world. Another expedition day in the Chilean Fjords has come and gone, and we can only imagine what tomorrow will bring.
3/9/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Isla Clemente, Archipelago de las Guaitecas43° 40’ S Last night we battened down the hatches for the notorious Golfo de Penas (Grief Gulf in Spanish, so called for the penance it may inflict on those who attempt its crossing). Lashed to our bunks, we could feel the heavy roll. Bud, with our comfort ever in mind, had promised a lie-in with a late brunch scheduled for calmer waters. At 0730, the clockwise noted the grey gloom and rolled over and went back to sleep. But the anticlockwise, conscious that a great ocean can mean great seabirds, donned their binoculars and oilskins, and swarmed up the rigging to assemble on the bridge wing at dawn. Grey skies with drizzle, but after the tame backwaters of the Chilean Fjords it was grand to feel the big Pacific swells: we peered into the gloom and waited with bated breath. Drawn up by the equally anticlockwise gyre of the Southern Ocean, the cold Humboldt currant streams cold Antarctic water north along the Chilean coast. This mixes with warm Pacific waters and the less saline meltwater from the fjords, plankton, copepods and fish thrive; for hungry seabirds roaming the vast southern ocean, it has been a favourite seafood restaurant for millennia. The seabird equivalent of an all-day breakfast. As the light improved and our eyes focused, the first shape came swinging in on the port side with the rolling waves: long white wings, a gleaming white head, smart black upperparts. A Royal Albatross, all the way from New Zealand, having traversed the full width of the Pacific to dine on the finest Chilean squid. What a sight! And not alone. It was joined by Kiwi compatriots, Buller’s and Chatham albatrosses, then soon outnumbered by local Black-brows and the racing black shapes of hundreds of Sooty Shearwaters. Later, after the promised brunch, we found haven in a sunlit fjord on Isla Clemente, took Zodiacs to a golden granite sand beach and followed the strand like latter-day Man Fridays, unable to hack a track through the dense bush. Those in kayaks paddled up dark rivers to look at streaming waterfalls, paused to watch Ringed Kingfishers or marvelled at the moss- and lichen-covered boughs of twisted riverside trees. After a hot-dog deck-snack, we stayed on deck to enjoy the afternoon sunshine on the forested granite hills. And we ended as we had begun, watching strings of silver-lined shearwaters and commuting skeins of sunlit shags beating low over the water to an island roost. Wide open ocean, seabirds, sunshine and a forested wilderness. From Grief Gulf to the clement waters of Isla Clemente, it has been a day of vivid contrasts.
3/11/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Isla Chiloë, Chile Late last night, under a cloudy night sky we dropped anchor just offshore from the city of Castro, capital of one of Chile’s larger islands, Chiloë. It had rained heavily yesterday, and we were prepared for more of the same today, but awoke instead to mostly sunny skies and a warm breeze for our Zodiac ride into shore. Some of us were off to a local national park for the opportunity to take in some more of the temperate rainforests that still hold civilization somewhat at bay in this part of the world. And while much of the fauna kept a safe distance from our intrepid hikers, a pair of Magellan woodpeckers found their way into the sights of several cameras and binoculars. These striking birds are the largest of all South American woodpeckers and are year round residents of these forests. Still the rest of us set off on a different adventure, one that took us through the picturesque countryside of Chiloë, and one of its islands. We learned a fair bit of local lore from our generous hosts, and managed a few photos of our own along the way. With just enough clouds around to cut out most of the mid-day glare, we were able to snap up a few memories of numerous sea and shore birds as they pilfered the rich and substantial outgoing tide. The rolling hills and forested island groups supplied plenty of material for interesting sea and landscapes. But by far the most photographed scenes contained one or more examples of the local architectural styles. In Chiloë, the locals have long taken advantage of their prolific supply of timber and used it for their homes. That in itself is not so out of the ordinary, but what makes this local flavor so unique is the manner in which they use the trees. In earlier times, they used more of the Alerce tree, an ancient tree that can live well beyond 3,000 years. The Chiloëans hand make book-sized shingles out of this, and now other trees, that line not only their roofs, but also the sides of their homes like the one seen here. Because of the Alerce tree’s unique properties, the shingles can last over 160 years with very little maintenance; they’re virtually waterproof and naturally flame retardant too. They work so well, in fact, that they are also used for nearly every other building on the islands as well, from boathouses and banks, to schools and steeple churches. As Chile has come to appreciate these arboreal wonders more and more, many have begun to utilize other trees like the Andean cypress in order to reduce the impact on the Alerce forests. And while these other trees can be worked in the same style, they require a bit more maintenance, like a colorful coat of paint to help keep them in working order. However, all the shingles are still placed in the traditional “fish scale” alignment in order to maximize their effectiveness against the rain, an important feature in a place that can receive well over six meters of rainfall per year.
3/13/2005
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National Geographic Endeavour
From the Endeavour in South America
Isla Mocha, Chile We continued our journey north along the coast of Chile. Last night we once again entered the open waters of the Pacific Ocean, and this morning we awoke riding the northward flowing Humboldt Current. In the lounge, Tato introduced us to the oceanography and biology of this distinctive and highly productive region, while outside the seabirds reflected the change of location. In addition to the now familiar black-browed albatrosses, Wilson’s storm-petrels and Magellanic penguins of the south, today we saw several new species associated exclusively with this region. Add the pronoun Peruvian to a species of pelican, diving petrel and booby, and this reflects in part the specialized composition of the Humboldt Current seabird community. There were also a number of albatrosses and petrels, among which were numerous pink-footed shearwaters (pictured), close to their island home of Isla Mocha. If you were to ask most people to stick a pin in a map to indicate the location of Isla Mocha it is likely that they could not. This small island of about 12 square miles is about 20 miles off the coast of central Chile and is home to a few hundred people. However, if you were able to ask a pink-footed shearwater where Isla Mocha is - they would know. The island is home to the majority of the world population (about 50,000 birds) of this species. We landed in the afternoon under bright skies and explored the island - the first time Lindblad Expeditions has been able to visit the island. By horse cart we were transported to the hills and hiked through a forest reserve, which is home to most of the pink-footed shearwaters in the world. Not that it was possible to see these birds on land, for they are both burrow nesters and nocturnal onshore, but as the Endeavour departed Isla Mocha and headed for the end of our journey in Talcahuano, they were seen in numbers offshore, gliding over the calm Pacific Ocean.
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