Birding at the Farm

February 9 & 10, 2015

James and I spent most of the day on Monday and the morning on Tuesday exploring and birding the farm.  For the birders, the species list is at the end of this post.  The farm is about a hectare large which is about 2 and a half acres.  There are citrus and avocado trees, corn, various squash, and other vegetables growing close to the house.  Across a ditch and up a dry hillside are planted cactus with edible fruit (tuna).  The climate, and cultivated vegetation and flowers, are very much the same as what grows in southern California.  

Photos of the house and garden:

We birded the farm and the tuna patches several times in the two days we were there.  Twice we climbed up the little hill above the farm.  On the grassy hillsides above the diversion ditch that separated them from the ag lands grew the shrubby espino trees and the tall cactus, quisco.  

On a point along a ridge, four soaring Black-chested Buzzard-Eagles and a few familiar American kestrels took advantage of the uplift and we were able to get close looks of them.  

Our species bird list for the two days:

• California Quail
• Harris’s Hawk
• Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle
• Southern Lapwing
• Picui Ground-Dove
• Eared Dove
• Giant Hummingbird
• Striped Woodpecker
• Chilean Flicker
• Chimango Caracara
• American Kestrel
• Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail
• Tufted Tit-Tyrant
• White-crested Elaenia
• Fire-eyed Diucon
• House Wren
• Austral Thrush
• Chilean Mockingabird
• Common Diuca-Finch
• Rufous-collared Sparrow
• Long-tailed Meadowlark
• Austral Blackbird
• Yellow-winged Blackbird

Summer in February

February 8, 2015, Sunday 

We got up rather late and packed to go to the country.  

Then we left all the suitcases at Olaya’s house to go to lunch at Amparo’s house. We picked up Sandra, David and Davis.  James and I wondered about fitting 6 in a 5 passenger car, but Sandra assured us that in Chile, “If the car will fit 5, it will fit 6; if it will fit 6, it will fit 7.”   We drove with four in the back seat of a small Fiat sedan to Amparo’s house, in the hills just southeast of the city.  

Viviana, who we met the night before, was the 7th guest for lunch.  After a leisurely course of appetizers and wine with a house and garden tour, we went outside for lunch.  Regrettably, I did not bring my camera, so I have no food photos.  We had porotos granados, a thick white bean soup with pureed pumpkin, cut corn, and basil.  The yellow soup was accented with red sliced tomatoes and green pebre.  Pebre is a fresh condiment made with parsley, onions, and olive oil.  We also had fresh greens and marinated cucumbers for a salad.  For desert we had fresh cantaloupe, strawberries and blueberries and, after that, mil hojas, a desert made of layers of a sort of cracker and dulce de leche.  It was wonderful to have a fresh summer meal after coming from winter in California.  Later I enjoyed the conversation and listening to David, Davis, and Sandra singing karaoke from music and lyrics on YouTube.

Late in the afternoon we picked up the suitcases, dropped Sandra, David and Davis at her apartment and drove to the Mallarauco Valley about 45 miles southwest of Santiago in the district of Melipilla to Olaya’s farm.  There we met Olaya’s daughter and her boyfriend and a couple of friends of theirs from Brazil.  We talked for about an hour before they left for Santiago and we went to bed.

 

 

Santiago on a Saturday

February 7, 2015

We got up rather late and didn’t get started on our sightseeing until about 11:30.  Olaya drove us to walk up the steps of Cerro Santa Lucia, a small hill in the middle of the city.

Sights on the way up the hill: 

On top was a park where we tried mote con huesillo, a drink made with wheat berries, a few dried peaches and the sugar syrup from cooking the dried peaches.  Interesting, probably healthier than soda pop.  We had a few more views of skyline.

At the bottom of the hill there was a nice looking couple having a conversation in the middle of the intersection.

We did not get to the bottom of the hill until about 5:00 and found it difficult to find a restaurant that was open.  We did finally find a place called Le Fournil that served some very nice sandwiches made with good crusty bread, fresh vegetables and real roast turkey (mine) and good smoked salmon (James and Olaya).

When we got home, we rested and then at about 8:00 commenced on our evening activities which consisted of two small birthday parties.  First, we went to Olaya’s daughter, Magdalena, and son-in-law’s house for his birthday and met several family members. We talked to the son-in-law’s mother and her brother for a little while.  He had traveled several times to Great Britain and the United States so his English was very good.

Then we went to Sandra’s apartment in a neighborhood near Cerro Santa Lucia where we had walked this afternoon.  We met David and Davis from Seattle, friends of Sandra.  It was Davis who was having the birthday.  The numbers on the cake showed his age backwards, 25.  We also met Amparo and Viviana, old friends of Olaya, and Sandra’s brother Jorge.  Only two people did not speak English but they still greeted us with cheek-to-cheek kisses.

We got home long after our usual bedtime, but had met and talked to some interesting people, some indulgent English speaking Chileans and a couple of Americans from Seattle.  

Birding?

In case anyone had heard we were going birding and wondered about these posts about the city, we are being ordinary, not very special, tourists until Thursday when we start the specialized bird-tourist activity.

Santiago

February 6, 2015

We explored Santiago today with Olaya, who, acting as guide and tourist, took as many photos as we did.  We left the house in Providencia at about 10 am and took a taxi to the Los Leones subway station and from there traveled on the subway train to La Moneda station in Santiago Centro.

We did a walking tour of government buildings and the business district including a pedestrian street called Nuevo York.

We went on to the Mercado Central where we admired stalls of fresh fish and went to a little restaurant adjacent to the market called Mares de Chile.

James had a soup that had a variety of shellfish cooked in clam broth.  I don’t remember what it was called.

Olaya had congrio frito con papas fritas.  Congrio is also called dorado.

I had sopa de congrio.  Mmmm good.

Then we walked in the Parque Forestal into the Bellavista district and went up the funicular to the top of Cerro San Cristobal to see the sights from there.

 

Bella Vista is full of bars and restaurants, and we stopped in one owned by Olaya’s brother for a soft drink before heading home.  We took the subway at Baquedano after having walked probably two miles.  The taxi from the Los Leones station got us home about 6:00.  After a long rest Olaya made us vegetable soup.  She had another guest for dinner, Guillermo.  Chileans stay up late and we didn’t get to bed until 1:00 am.  

A day in the air

February 5, 2015

The time went from Wednesday to Thursday in the air, hurried along by time zones.  I must have slept on the 6 plus hour plane ride from Los Angeles to Panama City because it did not feel like 6 plus hours to my mind although it did feel that way to my body.  The second leg of the journey, about the same length, felt longer because it was day and I was awake most of it struggling with the offline blog editor, knitting and reading.  Here is our view to the east as we approached Santiago.

 

We arrived in Santiago at about 6:00 pm.  It is 5 hours ahead of California.  A Chilean friend, Olaya, met us with a sign with our names.  A few years ago we had met her when she came with a longtime friend from Alaska and stayed a week with us.  We had been out of touch enough years that we were not sure we would recognize each other.  

The first day of travel

February 4, 2015

 

It has been a dry winter.  On the day we left home, we left a garden partially ready for spring and narcissus blooming, the first flowers of the season.

We drove the six hour drive to Los Angeles to meet a cousin and her husband who is generous enough to let us park our car in their driveway and drive us to the airport on many of our international trips.  We took them out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Rey.  Our flight was at 10:45 pm so we drove from the restaurant to LAX at 7:30 for check-in and lots of waiting.  Then we were on the plane, first to Panama City, Panama and then a connection to Santiago, Chile.

My Blogging Experiment

Never before having blogged before I have decided to jump right in and start a blog for my next big birding trip with my husband.