Life in the Magellan Strait

Hey Sweetie,

How is Austin? I hope you are filling up on TexMex and Girl Scout Cookies.  Yesterday we went to the furthest-most point south on the South American continent to the site of Fort Bulnes erected in 18something-or-other to stake Chile's claim on the Straight.  The re-created fort was kind of a yawn, but the birding and other sealife was quite a thrill. In our walk along the coast by the fort we identified an additional five species of birds, bringing to 17 the number we've seen since the start of the trip. Yesterday we saw these beautiful Blue Eyed Cormorants.

We also saw:

South American Terns,
Dolphin Gulls,
Southern Rufous Collared Sparrows (below),
and a male Grey Hooded Sierra Finch.

Pretty keen, eh. As you can see we've begun to work at identifying smaller birds which is much more difficult, given their flitty nature.

While on the walk we also enjoyed watching a large sea lion catch and eat quite a fish and saw two pods of dolphins working schools of fish with great ferocity.  We would see them dive below to drive them near the surface, then use their tails and bodies to stun them for easy eatings. It was quite the display, although, as you can see, it didn't photograph well. 

When driving back to Punta Arenas we were surprised to see so many derelict ships in the water and even "parked" permanently on land. These two were a couple of the more interesting ones.

I know you will be happy to read that we've altered our eating habits in the last few days, realizing that three squares was one too many. Rather than a lunch at 1 and dinner at 8, we've gone to have one meal at 3pm and then a small snack in the evening. Yesterday I had a pobre (poor) man's steak with eggs and frites for lunch and couldn't finish it. Not wanting to waste food, we got it to go and then put it in an abandoned house that we'd seen a few of the dozens of feral dogs use as a base. Please note in Punta Arenas, when you ask for your steak rare - they take the request quite literally. Mine jumped off the plate twice.

Today I had hare stew (they still didn't have their house specialty of Guanaco fillet). I can't say I am a big fan of hare, though the hot paprika they served it with really jumped out at me (get it? hare stew jumping out at me). Which is why the lid is on tight.

Since we have speedy internet, you are getting to see lots of pics today. As we've tapped out most of the other sites, we dropped the car off and then had a monster walk to the Cemetario and along the shore line.  Here are some cool scenes from the Cemetario. I would tell you the first one is (if you look closely) where Santa was buried. But I know that would just make you cry. So we'll just call it interesting.

We saw another, similar internment which had two Hello Kitty figurines and a salt shaker. I flashed on the idea that I would like to be buried with one of my salt shakers. And then I flashed on an even better idea! I could/should have my ashes interred into one of my shakers. You would just have to be sure to keep it off the table.  YUCK!!!!

Well that is enough excitement for one day. Tomorrow we board the boat ~3pm. I'm going to post tomorrow's blog today to be pro-active. It is on a favorite topic - risk mitigation for independent travelers.

Cheers,

Dad