February 15 – Day 13:

On the evening of February 14th, after our flight from Mendoza back to Santiago, we loaded back onto the van with Ugo and drove to Vina Del Mar on the Pacific Coast. Along the way we added one bird for the trip – a drive by view of a White-tailed Kite. I knew we were ending our trip on the coast and was looking forward to adding new birds and relaxing by the ocean. Not at all doing my homework, I envisioned a quaint little beach town like the one I had enjoyed with Greg Homel in Jalisco, Mexico back in December. Not the case – not by a long shot. As we got close, all I could see were lights- thousands of lights. To the South were the thousands of lights of Valparaiso and to the North where we were headed were the thousands of lights of Vina del Mar. Valparaiso is the port and harbor city and Vina del Mar is the beach city and also the effective administrative capital of Chile, with Santiago being the actual capital.

Each of the two cities have populations over 325,000 and the population of the combined Metropolitan area is almost 1 million. Additionally it was a holiday weekend and there was a music festival in Vina del Mar. As we drove steeply down to the center of Vina del Mar, there were people everywhere – on the streets, on the sidewalks, in long lines in front of every restaurant, cafe and bar. I don’t like crowds – especially in unfamiliar places and especially when unexpected – a kind of claustrophobia. Even in the van, I felt uneasy like I was being swallowed up, a mini-panic attack. There was absolutely no danger as it was just crowds of people having a good time and not a mob of any kind, but I felt very uncomfortable. So much for a quaint relaxing oceanside visit. The discomfort did not disappear when we dismissed any plan to eat at a restaurant in town and stopped at a convenience store to get “dinner” in the form of once again a chicken sandwich being essentially two pieces of white bread with mayonnaise and a few slices of chicken. (Actually no complaint about that – I had one before and it was actually tasty and a lot less calories than our typical dinner extravaganzas.) Even the convenience store was mobbed and I just wanted to get out of there and hoped that what had been described as a quiet hotel north of town would be just that.

We would be staying at the Hotel Oceanic which while only a few miles north of the bustling city, was actually mostly quiet – except for the crashing waves as we were in fact right on the ocean. Marcelo was right on when he said that someday a developer would grab the hotel and turn it into a resort. In the meantime, it was comfortable if somewhat dated and the views were nice indeed. It was dark and late. I ate my sandwich and went to bed in a comfortable room, the anxiety from the shock of hitting what seemed like the chaos of Vina del Mar was gone.

Early on the tour I asked Marcelo if we would have a good chance for views and photos of an Inca Tern, a truly cool bird. His response was that we would be able to see them from our rooms at our hotel in Vina del Mar. He was right as looking out onto the ocean from the room, some terns flew by – generally in the company of many Kelp Gulls. Early on the morning of the 15th, before breakfast, I grabbed my camera and went looking for a place in the hotel where I might get a good photo. Down two flights there was a porch that could not have been better – both for views out to the ocean and also to a support wall of the hotels where many Inca Terns were perched – less than 25 feet away. I also grabbed quick shots of a Kelp Gull and an American Oystercatcher.

All of these species were new for Chile and for the trip but I had seen and photographed all before, but the single Inca Tern photo I had from Peru was awful. I was very pleased with this pre-breakfast photo session and knew there was more to come. We had a good leisurely breakfast and I made sure the others knew of the photo porch downstairs – visited by all after the meal. I joined them and while they focused on the Inca Terns, I grabbed a quick life photo of a Peruvian Booby.

We would be heading off to bird at the beautiful and very birdy Humedal Park at the mouth of the Maipo River south of Valparaiso. The map below shows the spot and looks like it is almost closer to Santiago than to Vina del Mar – proof in any event that it would be possible to include it in a day trip from the capital city.

Birding at Humedal was terrific and the park really was spectacular – with the best boardwalk I have ever seen, restrooms and info center and beautiful signage. And the birds were terrific.

In the early morning at the hotel I had a glimpse at a lifer Blackish Oystercatcher flying by – actually 4 of them, but had not gotten a photo. There was another, along with American Oystercatchers at Humedal but again no photo. The first lifer with a photo was a Snowy-crowned Tern, hidden amongst a large flock of Black Skimmers, and that was followed by a distant photo of a South American Tern. And we also had a couple of Elegant Terns, with their super long orange bills and “elegant” head crowns – also new for the trip.

A photo I was very happy to get was of a Coscoroba Swan. I had seen this species in the Junin area on my first visit to Argentina in 1989 – no photo. Then we had seen two in the great distance in Argentina a few days earlier – again no photo. They are not spectacular as swans go, but the photo even though distant brought a lifer photo smile. And being on a shore, not surprisingly there were lots of shorebirds -11 species: Blackish and American Oystercatchers, Black-Necked Stilts, Baird’s Sandpipers, Sanderlings Hudsonian Godwits, Whimbrels, Greater Yellowlegs, a Semipalmated Plover, a Southern Lapwing, and a larger plover that was either a Black-bellied Plover or Golden Plover – too distant to tell for sure. In addition to the Kelp Gulls seen earlier, we now added a few Brown-hooded Gulls, misidentified as Franklin’s Gulls at the time and indeed many hundred Franklin’s Gulls (better pictures of them tomorrow).

Exactly 24 years and 11 months before this day I had seen a Thorn-tailed Rayadito in Junin, Argentina – no photo. It took a lot of work and if I had more skill the result would have been better, but I managed to get a photo of one this morning. Taking even longer but with much better results, I also managed nice photos of a lifer DeMurs’s Wiretail in very similar dense foliage. Marcelo recognized the call and got it going in a back and forth conversation with his recording, but it took many moments for it to show itself. When it did, it was quite a show. I wish the Plain-mantled Tit-tyrant and Ticking Doradito had been as cooperative. They sounded off but remained hidden – at least for me. Both would have been life photos.

There were two more lifers at Humedal this morning: Chilean Pigeon – distant, and Guanay Cormorant – a very distant flyby called out by Marcelo and seen for perhaps a half second by me. I would get another look – equally distant the next day with a barely ID quality photo.

Sometimes even though the bird has been seen and photographed many times, the setting on a photo makes it special. I have commented before how much everyone liked the Spectacled Tyrants. We saw several at Humedal, but the one on the park sign was the star of the show without doubt. A couple of seconds later a Correndera Pipit flew in for a nice photo, too.

Time for lunch – but we would return for a bit afterwards. It had been a great morning with 6 lifers – closing in on 100 for the trip. We were also closing in on 100 species for Chile and were now over 200 species for the trip. Lunch would be at our last winery for the tour – the Matetic Winery. The grounds at the winery were beautiful and although there were no new lifers, I got some nice photos including a life photo of a Dark-bellied Cinclodes, which I had seen almost 35 years earlier in Argentina. And although it had been several times before, i finally got a good and life photo of a Chilean Swallow.

Again not new, but a good photo series was of one of the Long-tailed Meadowlarks feeding on the grass – back, front and side views.

The lunch was wine filled and wonderful. Chile is better known for its white wines than for its reds with a definite exception being for the Carmenere grape and Carmenere wine. This grape was rediscovered in Chile after it had completely died out in Europe from a root disease. But at Matetic they were most proud of their Syrah and their Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. We had all three at lunch and they were superb. I had a shrimp risotto that was perfect.

Our last stop for the day was at a small pond/estuary which Ebird noted as Estero el Totoral and which I believe Marcelo called Quebrada de Cordova. There were a number of people at the small pond and many others walking along the path that we birded, maybe somewhat affecting our birding. Mike Warner immediately noted a “different looking coot” at the “pond”. Good spotting as it was a lifer Spot-flanked Gallinule. Although we would “have” two more lifers at this non-descript place, they were definitely not as cooperative. A small green hummingbird that darted by was a Green-backed Firecrown. The look lasted all of one second and that was it. At least I saw it. Marcelo’s main quest was a White-throated Tapaculo. Looking for all the world like a small brown wren with a heavy supercilium and a striped chest, it played with us for 30 minutes – actually they played with us as there were at least two and probably three. It called to the left of us, to the right of us, across the stream, back behind us and then from all those places again. The best I ever saw was movement of a little brown object in foliage on the ground across the river. Sometimes, it seemed just feet away. It never came out fully into the open. The song was a clear ID, but it sure would have been nice to get a great view and better yet a photo. The photo of the Gallinule below is mine, the Tapaculo was taken by someone else.

As we left, I got a photo of a Blue and White Swallow – first time my photo of this swallow on the trip was recognizable as such. It had been a really good birding day with the 9 lifers bringing my trip total to 97 with some nice photos in addition to those misses. The Chile list was up to 99 and the trip list to 207. We would have a half day of birding on the 16th and then would head back to Santiago where everyone except Cindy, me and Marcelo would be dropped at the airport for flights home. The three of us would be leaving the next day. We went back to our hotel for a brief refresh and then we had “The Last Supper”, our final big meal of the trip at the Tierra del Fuego Restaurant on the waterfront in Vina del Mar.

February 16, Day 14:

I do not recall what the original plan had been, but Marcelo said there would be a change to enable us to see penguins. These iconic birds are found only in the Southern oceans most notably on or near Antarctica. The only penguins I had seen were African Penguins in South Africa in 2014, so I was happy with this decision although was not sure if there was a trade-off for other possibilities going north to the penguin colony.

Our first birding stop was at Renaca Playa Cochoa, a beach at the north end of Vina del Mar with a large rock offshore. I picked up two lifers – a Seaside Cinclodes and a Red-legged Cormorant, the latter posing very close and the latter very distant almost at the top of the offshore rock. There were other good birds and photo ops as well including my lifer photos of Blackish Oystercatcher which had been seen but not photographed the previous day.

The photos of the Blackish Oystercatchers show well the difference between them and our Black Oystercatcher of the Northwest. The heads and bills are essentially the same but the body feathers of the Blackish Oystercatcher are notably browner – and the feet are paler. At this spot we also had other birds familiar from the U.S. – Surfbirds and Ruddy Turnstones – both new for the trip and the Surfbirds, my first is South America.

Our last stop for the day and for the tour would be at a breeding colony for the Humboldt Penguin – a lifer for everyone except Marcelo. On the way we passed by a wetland/estuary where a small group of Coscoroba Swans were resting. The photo was far superior than the one from the previous day.

We accessed the penguin colony through the high-end private Cachagua Gated Community, and walked to an overlook. The light was not great with a light mist and we could not get real close, but penguins are unmistakable and we had great scope views and a chance for some relatively poor photos, that we were pleased to get at all. It was my world lifer #100 for the trip – a fitting end. The photos of the Humboldt Penguins were not great, but the life photo of a distant Guanay Cormorant in flight was even worse. I will probably never seen one again – so glad to get anything. Far better were photos of the abundant cormorant of the area – a Neotropic Cormorant with wings extended, a far better photo of a Peruvian Pelican than I had gotten in Peru in 2013 and of two Seaside Cinclodes displaying below us. Lastly a photo of some Franklin’s Gulls in flight caught three adult birds nearing full breeding plumage with nearly full black heads, white eye arcs and pink bellies.

We had a last lunch on the way back to Santiago with an excellent Carmenere Wine – a fitting close to the wine part of the tour to go with the Humboldt Penguins as a fitting close to the birding part. After dropping the others at the airport, Marcelo, Cindy and I returned to the Hyatt Place Hotel in Santiago. Marcelo left early the next morning. We had a late night flight and the Hotel allowed us a late check out. The hotel really treated us well and we are very thankful. As had been the case throughout the trip, Marcelo attended to every detail and arranged for an Uber to pick us up at the hotel and take us to the airport. He was there right on time and we returned to the airport, where we luxuriated in the gorgeous LATAM Airline Lounge until our flight departed around 11. The flight to Miami was long but pleasant. Unfortunately we had a very long layover at the Miami Airport and since we were flying back to Seattle on Alaska Airlines which has only two flights out of Miami – both late, we were not able to check bags and get through security for many hours. So we camped out and killed time and were happy to finally get onboard for the long flight home.

In Summation – Post Mortem

It is hard to believe that it has now been almost three weeks since our return. Especially since I have spent many hours since that return working on photos and these blog pots, much is fresh or refreshed in my mind. That said, partly due to my aging brain also to what I would call the “density” of the trip, details are fading. There were so many great meals with both great food and great wines, like some of our best wines they are blending into fine memories but with the component parts indistinct. On a scorecard reviewing the trip I would give exceptional high marks to Field Guides, Marcelo Padua, most of our accommodations, to wine and food in both Argentina and Chile, and to almost everyone we met along the way, certainly our tour companions, but also drivers (well one exception), everyone at wineries, restaurants, hotels and shops. LATAM Airlines was great. Alaska Airlines was fine, but no comparison to LATAM. The Santiago Airport was fine. We hated the Miami airport – even without the “lost” wallet incident.

While not a fan of Vina del Mar, we really enjoyed the little we saw of Santiago, Chile and loved the countryside, especially in the Andes, in both countries. This was a “bird” and “wine” trip. The birds were generally as expected both in quantity and quality. Not the spectacular birds of the tropics and more brown and gray birds than would be ideal, but Marcelo was terrific in finding and identifying them and the 100 World Lifers and even more life photos were in the range I expected. We had not had much experience with wines from this region and are no means wine experts (and definitely not wine snobs) but we left with a great appreciation of these wines, this wine region and of wines and wine-making in general.

Just as choosing a best bird would be difficult, so, too would it be difficult to choose a best wine. In the running for best birds would be the Diademed Sandpiper-plover, the Elegant-crested Tinamou, the Inca Terns and the Humboldt Penguins. As to the wines, the Chardonnays at the beginning of the trip in Chile stood out to me. Malbecs, Cabernet Sauvignons and especially the mix of the two were favorites in Argentina. Back in Chile again, we loved the Carmeneres, and Cindy was especially fond of the Sauvignon Blancs – which surprised her. The wonderful dinners and lunches are impossible to recall accurately but we both agree that a luscious chocolate mousse may be the most memorable dessert and for something truly different, the Duck Confit Marcelo made on an open fire was awesome. We lost track of the number of empanadas we had on the trip. We were first exposed to them in Ecuador. Afterwards, Cindy perfected her own version. The ones on this trip were always a welcome sight.

Would we take this trip again? No. But only because we have so many other places to visit and time is running out. But we would recommend it to anyone except to someone whose sole goal was list building – just not enough lifers probably. We will consider another wine and birds trip to another location and would definitely be happy to see Marcelo Padua again.

ONE CAVEAT – there is simply no way to take this tour without significant weight gain – just too much food and wine. I have now starved myself to lose the ten pounds I put on. I want to lose more, but am starting to drink wine again – Chilean and Argentinian are fortunately readily available nearby.

Final Counts:

Chile – 105 species seen – 78 with photos – 37 species lifers

Argentina – 153 species seen – 119 with photos – 63 species lifers

Tour total – 212 species – 181 with photos – 100 species lifers/116 photo lifers