Our itinerary

It occurred to me that I have not fully explained just what a couple of desert rats were doing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean last month.  We were on a WINGS birding tour:  A Cruise: Valparaiso to Buenos Aires.  The birding tour included 17 people, 16 birders (with two co-leaders) and one non-birding spouse.  Separate from us but staying in the same floating “hotel” were over 2,000 people.  On the sea days this cruise gave us the opportunity to see ocean birds in the Humboldt current.  The cold Humboldt current flowing in a northerly direction off of Chile in the spring and summer is rich in nutrients, and the fish, birds and sea mammals that take advantage of these nutrients.  We saw incredible numbers of birds.  The days we were birding on the Atlantic Ocean yielded new birds but not the numbers that we had on the Pacific Ocean.

The cruise was 14 days long which included seven port days.  The excursions were arranged by WINGS.  Here is a map with our stops marked:

There were three occasions where being on the cruise ship provided us with opportunities to see sights on or near land that would have been logistically difficult otherwise.  One was the view of the Amalia Glacier from the ocean, the next was the view of Cape Horn, and the third, though you can fly there, the day trip to the Falkland Islands.