Sunday, November 11, 2007

First week in Chile

Santiago was great, but so far my favorite place is Armerillo, near Talca, where I stayed at a small place called Refugio del Tricahue. There is a really large Nothofagus dombeyii there, which soundeed just like the giant hemlock that I can never find. "It´s up the valley", they told me. "It´s the biggest tree there, but you might not find it." Well I found it, so I took the photo to prove it!


I also found all sorts of neat things which where completely new to me. Like burrowing parrots, plain-mantled tit-spinetails, torrent ducks, dark-bellied cinclodes, thorn-tailed rayayditos, etc. Ad infinitum. As you may see from the picture below, the place was really nice too. This is one of the more open valleys that I walked through with a Dutch friend that I met in Santiago:


I am now in Talca with Dennis the Dutchman and a cool Argentinian girl named Emilia. Among many other things we went to Lota to visit the old coal mines of Chiflón del Diablo, walk around on the beach, and visit the town. Here we are in the coal mine:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on finding a big tree up a valley! It must have been because you had practice looking for the one in Sitka.

Anonymous said...

salut Paul
ou t'ecrire ? sur to mail perso, ou bien sur ton blog ?
je suis bien entendu très jaloux ( mais tres content) de te savoir au chili dans de si beaux lieux .. je n'ai jamais vu de Nothofagus sauvages ( encore moins de cette taille !!! ).. et tous les autres oiseaux cités, je ne les ai pas vu en Argentine.
n'hésites pas à me répondre sur mon mail pour que l'on sache ou t'écrire.
Julien.