Secret missions will not allow us to betray our current location.
There is a lot to be said for changing your mind.
We made it through a leg of the desert, but that information in itself is misleading.
Prior to current deceptions, which cannot be resolved until further resolution, we saw penguins.
Chilean Humboldt Penguins a midsized variety that lives on an island off the coast of Pan de Azucar National Park. If the man guiding the boat, who took us there, with a long stick attached to the motor that broke off shortly before we returned to the shore, in the small wooden motor boat was correct, and our spanish does not betray us:
The 5,000 Penguinos de Humboldt are indigenous to the island, an original species there,
have no natural predators,
and give birth to two babies twice a year.
We also saw red footed cormorants drying their wings, spread like crucifixes along the rocks, chilean pelicans with rainbow beaks and blue feet, sea otter pairs swimmming, sea lions basking (sea wolves here in Chile), and HUGE JELLYFISH. Called medusas, they are striped pink and the size of small children (five year olds).
Countless shore birds lined our horizons, countless crabs and urchins line the tide pools.
CAT´S UNOFFICIAL BIRD LIST UPDATE (as gleaned from her shoddy field notes and the occasional too-expensive-to-buy and too-heavy-to-carry bird guide):
Humboldt Penguin
American Oyestercatcher
Blackish Oyestercatcher
Chilean Pelican
Whimbrel
Surf Bird (what the Spanish language book calls it - aphriza virgata)
White-rumped Sandpiper
White-backed stilt
Grey Gull (larus modestus)
Simeon Gull (Also called Peruvian Gull here, I believe)
Franklin´s Gull
Black Skimmer
Olivaceous Cormorant
Red-footed Cormorant (holy crap)
Black-crowned Night Heron
Stripe-backed Bittern
Black Vulture (and many, many turkey vultures near the ocean - strange)
California Quail
Blue and white swallow
Giant Hummingbird (again, holy crap)
Not to be overshadowed by the nature, prior to the roll that in your bird life list and smoke it experience, we camped the night before with a seaweed diver who could hold his breath for sixty feet, the night after we stayed with a third generation bicycle family in Copiapo´, whose members included everyone from shop owners to adventure guides. Diego greated us on a bicycle as we road in, Meg´s ill fated sickness slightly faded after Vallenar, where we had camped inside of a haunted building with Mormons who were rebuilding the interior. In Copiapo´we swam and road the Chileans around double on the back of our bicycles preparing for the desert, which again will not yet be mentioned...
