Little Lolly's Small Adventures: nature

Having had a sea day yesterday it was good to get off the ship for a while. Even if it meant having to travel in tender to get to shore!

It's been a nice day out with a visit to the Cucao Chiloé National Park. On the way to the park in the hills we passed by fishing harbours with shellfish farming & salmon farming, past lakes & through beautiful countryside.

Once at the national park we made our way to the visitor’s centre. Unfortunately another tour group was inside the visitor centre with their guide. Our guide, Juna, found it difficult to compete above the voice of the other guide so we started our walk through the park earlier and we would come back to the visitor centre on our way back.

Lovely walk along paths and boardwalks, over marshland/wetlands, through forest and scrub. We stopped at the open air museum (wooden house) on our way back to the park entrance and our guide described what life used to be like, living inside the wooden house.

We had refreshments at Cocineria Tradicionel Morelia, a traditional Chilean restaurant. A variety of empanadas were served and a type of small dessert. Also fruit juice and/or Pisco Sour served as well. The Pisco Sour went down a treat.

On the way back to Castro pier we stopped briefly to see the wooden stilt houses built above the incoming tide waterline. I got the feeling that some people have never seen stilt houses before, but that is to be expected.

I caught the tender back to the ship but others decided to stay in town for a while. The weather was good so - if not, why not.

Overall it has been a nice day, beautiful scenery, lovely walk and good weather.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Cucao Chiloé National Park

Cocineria Tradicionel Morelia

En-route To The Ship

Views of Castro from the Prinsendam

We had an exciting day today even though it was an early start.

Juan and the bus driver met us at the hotel and we went to Santa Cruz, the Itabaca Channel, where we zodiac'd to a yacht. We sailed to Santa Cruz Island with Dragon Hill in the distance. During our yacht ride we caught sight of sea turtles mating, a shark, flying manta ray, pelicans, sea lions.

A zodiac trip took us over to the island where we had a bit of a walk around Dragon Hill. There was plenty to see: red crabs, iguanas, different birds, booby penguins and more. While on the island with Juan We learned a lot about nature conservation on the Galapagos islands. It was very interesting.

Back on board the yacht it was time for lunch on the yacht. The on-board chef had freshly cooked tuna steaks for us, cassava & vegetables; dessert afterwards as well as home made lemonade. It was a feast and a wonderful meal - our bellies groaned from such delicious food.

We next sailed over to another island, Sombrero Chino, where we had a zodiac ride across to the island and a ½ hour walk along the coastline to walk off our lunch. However the main aim was to see some sea sea lions. We weren't disappointed. We saw baby suckling noisily from mum's teat and baby sea lions without their mums as well. We also saw plenty of red crabs, iguanas and birds too. Back at beach we snorkelled in the warm water for a while. Juan pointed out different types of fish and other sea life. A baby sea lion joined us & swam amongst us. Juan and I mimicked its playful swimming, much to the baby's delight at its new play pals. But we respectfully did not try to touch the youngster as it swam around and between us and the guests.

Sadly our day came to an end and we had to sail back to the Santa Cruz to meet up with our bus and head back to the hotel.

Another delicious meal awaited us - I say no more. "Burp".

It has been a wonderful day and everyone 'gelled' well together, making a delightful group of happy/crazy but down to earth people. We felt very spoilt on the yacht with chef, captain & other staff there to make us feel comfortable. What a very interesting and fun day.

PHOTOGRAPHS