On with the show. On Friday I took one of the "standard" tours from La Serena, the visit to the Humboldt Penguin National Reserve. Even though we are in northern Chile, yes, there are penguins, in their natural habitat. They're just little guys, and they're classified as "vulnerable". I booked with an agency called Eco-Tours (which is probably no more eco-friendly than any other, but anyway). It was recommended by my hotel, and their rate was reasonable based on what the tourist office told me: 21,000 pesos plus the rate for the boat (which ranges between 7000-11000 depending on the size of the group).
I was picked up at about 8.30am in a ~13 seater var, which was full. Everyone else in my group turned out to be Chilean, which was fine, except that it meant that about 95% of the commentary by the guide, who could speak English, was in Spanish. This would have been salvageable even, had the sound system on the van worked properly. The other thing lacking was seat belts on some of the seats, including mine.
It is about a two hour ride to the "port", a small community called Los Choros, about half of it on an unpaved road. So we got there, got a short lecture on the sea-birds to be found around the reserve, and got strapped into our life vests. Our group was large enough that the charge for the boat was 7000 pesos pp, making the total cost 28,000 pesos, or about $56 Cdn. The boat could probably seat around 20 people, and actually had proper seats, unlike some others I saw. The water was not rough, a few larger waves that made one's innards flutter a little. The ride takes about half an hour. Only one person was motion sick, and it wasn't me.
Anyway, to the reserve, which is on the island of Isla Choros; landing is not permitted--you have ride alongside. The first thing we saw were some sea lions sunning themselves. It looked like a pretty cool life, actually, though I'm sure it has it's pitfalls. They took but a passing interest in us. Next, the stars of the show, the penguins. Well, I was a bit underwhelmed: I was expecting a colony numbering in the hundreds at least, but there were perhaps ten at most standing around at this location--and they blended in with the rocks. But still, penguins, not something you see every day. So we stopped a bit to take pictures (challenging in a bobbing boat) and then continued on to see more seabirds. I'm not a birder so I have no real details here. There was another patch of penguins of about the same size as the first one, and another indolent group of sea lions.
Next we were taken to Isla Damas, a nearby island where you are allowed to land, though only for an hour. I enjoyed this part the most, because I got to walk around and take pictures of cacti and other vegetation. Too bad it was only for an hour. There were also some impressive birds that I took to be hawks of some kind flying around. I was surprised that in the midst of all this senseless beauty some people decided to swim instead (despite the sign saying that the beach was not suitable for swimming) or sit around and drink beer.
So then we went back to Los Choros where we were given a (late) lunch (included in the price of the tour). We got back to La Serena at around 6.30. I talked to a few other people staying at my hotel who had taken the same tour, and some seemed as ambivalent as I was (most of my quibbling was with the small number of penguins, not that anyone could so anything about that, but it was a bit of a letdown). I'm not sorry I took the tour, but I can't recommend it unreservedly.
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