Southern Cone: Chile and Argentina 2016, Part 1 - Northern Chile

(Note: report written Feb 2019)

Yet another long-overdue trip report. Luckily for this one I have some notes (although most of my notes from the first ten days or so were lost!), my photos, and eBird lists to help piece it together. Hopefully in the future I'll get these things written up in a more timely manner.

In planning this trip, I didn't really plan a lot! I booked my flights only a few weeks before departure, as I had originally planned to go to Brazil with some friends, but we discovered we wouldn't get our visas in time, so I had to do some last-minute reorganizing. I basically made a list of all of the Southern Cone (Chile, Argentina and Uruguay) specialty birds (218 species at the time), with some likely spots to find each one (pulled from eBird), and then devised a loose route that could get us to most of them efficiently. Other than my international flights, and the internal flight to northern Chile, nothing was booked ahead of time. This meant that we could explore each region and give it the amount of time we felt necessary when there. If we saw all our target birds, then we'd move on - otherwise we would stay an extra day or two and see if our luck changed. This worked out well for the most part, with only a few hiccups and a lost day or two along the way. When you have 10 weeks to work with though, a down day here and there can be a good thing. Of the 218 Southern Cone specialty birds, 10 were not possible on the trip (endemic to offshore islands like the Falklands or Juan Fernandez), leaving a pool of 208 possibilities. I managed to see 187 of these, and hear another 9, missing only 12 specialties between the two countries. Maybe some day I'll make it back to try for them!

Prices for hostels/trips/goods will be listed in the local currency. At the time of my trip, one Canadian dollar was worth about 500 Chilean pesos, and anywhere between 9.5-12 Argentine pesos. Prices in Argentina changed significantly even over the few weeks that I was there, so these probably won't mean much anymore, but I've included them anyway.

Now, without further ado - on to the trip!

January 1, 2016

I began the trip by hopping on the 20:05 flight from Sault Ste. Marie to Toronto, having spent Christmas and New Year's with my family. Unlike some of my previous trips out of the Sault in winter, this one departed on schedule and I arrived in Toronto on time, only to discover that my flight to Santiago had been delayed over three hours. What had originally been a planned 23:45 departure turned into 02:00 and then 03:00 as the plane was having issues. With my $20 meal voucher in-hand, I ate a midnight dinner courtesy of Air Canada and settled in on one of the free tablets to kill time. We eventually made it into the air, and I tried to get some sleep on the 11h+ flight.

Jan 2

I arrived in Santiago 2.5 hours late, but thankfully this meant my long layover there was significantly shortened. Waiting for me at the arrivals gate was my friend Regan, who I'd be travelling with in the north of the country for the next week. Since I flew with only carry-on luggage, we made our way through the airport to our gate for our next flight, to Calama. Regan had been in the country for a few weeks already, exploring the southern part and volunteering at a park, so we had some catching up to do as we waited for our departure. I also used the opportunity to add my first species to the trip list (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26640901), with my lifer Chimango Caracaras being the first birds I saw, and the obvious highlight of my time in the airport. Eventually it was time to board our plane, and we took in the spectacular scenery on our way north, while watching a movie on the onboard entertainment network. Arriving in Calama around 19:30, we decided to head onward to San Pedro, instead of staying in Calama as we'd originally planned. Hopping aboard one of the shuttle buses, we were off through the Atacama desert, getting our first taste of this hyper-arid landscape. It was pretty surreal to see a giant area with no visible life, save the few cars we passed on the highway en route.

First views of the Atacama from the shuttle bus

As we neared San Pedro de Atacama, we entered into a little oasis just as it was getting dark, and the shuttle dropped us off somewhere in the heart of town. We wandered the streets for a while, checking out hostels in the dark, and being told time and again that they were all full. Turns out San Pedro is a very popular town with tourists, and we were beginning to regret our choice to come here instead of staying in Calama. Eventually though, one hostel owner phoned around for us and gave us directions to her friend's hostel that still had two beds. Our half-hour of wandering town in the dark paid off, and we ended up at the IntiPara hostel on the north edge of town, which turned out to be one of the cheapest at 9000 pesos per person, and also one of the nicest, as it was away from the hubbub of town and had a nice courtyard. After settling in to our dorm with some people from Brazil, I finally got to sleep around 23:00 after quite a long journey!

Running trip list: 4

Jan 3

After a much-needed sleep-in, Regan and I grabbed breakfast and then went for a walk out to Pukará de Quitor, just northwest of San Pedro (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26640877). The road here followed along the river through a dry valley, and had quite a few trees and shrubs, providing habitat for some quality birds. Chiguanco Thrushes, West Peruvian Doves and Rufous-collared Sparrows were common, and after walking a ways we eventually found a few Black-winged Ground-Doves, our first of many Mourning Sierra-Finches, Greenish Yellow-Finches and Yellow-rumped Siskins, and my lifer Mountain Caracara and Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail. Our main target, however, was the range-restricted Tamarugo Conebill, which had been reported there recently. After finding some tamarugo trees, we stopped to look for activity, and were quickly rewarded with a pair of the conebills foraging among the branches. I was secretly hoping we'd get these birds just when we did, as among the nine lifers I saw that morning, they were #2000 for my life list!

Tamarugo Conebill

The road to Pukará de Quitor

With that success under our belts, we birded around a little more and then headed back to town. We spent the heat of the day exploring the town, buying some groceries and booking some tours for the next couple of days. There are quite a few tour agencies in the town, and we went with Desert Adventure Tours, which turned out to be a good decision, as we later discovered. We mainly went on the tours as Regan wanted to do some 'touristy' things, and the ones we booked lined up nicely with the birding hotspots in the area, and didn't cost much more than renting a car would have. After a siesta, we headed back out to Pukará for an evening walk, mostly seeing the same birds as in the morning, with the addition of a Gray-bellied Shrike-Tyrant (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26657855).

Overlooking the oasis of San Pedro de Atacama

The church in San Pedro

An arch in the desert

Running trip list: 18

Jan 4

We were up early, to be picked up by the tour bus at our hostel, and quickly hit the road out of town. Our destination for the morning was the altiplano lakes (Lagunas Miscanti y Miñiques) to the south of San Pedro. Along the way, I birded from the window while Regan napped, adding quite a few lifers (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26674385). Thankfully, there weren't any drive-by species that I didn't see better later in the trip, although the Mountain Parakeets and Puna Miner were the only ones I saw in Chile. Arriving at the lakes, we had the place to ourselves, as the other tour companies seem to arrive at the spots later than Desert Adventures (at least this is how it worked when we were there). This suited us just fine, and Regan and I scoped Miñiques from the overlook while our driver got breakfast set up. We had also made friends with our tour guide on the drive up, a Russian girl named Margarita who had been travelling in South America and liked it so much she decided to stay. She turned out to be quite interested in the birds, and we were to have a little adventure the next day because of it, but more on that later! The altiplano lakes held quite a few waterbirds, and around the shorelines were some of the high-elevation specialties we hoped for - of the 20 species we saw at the lakes, 14 of them were lifers for me (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26674556). The main attraction here was the Horned Coots, as this is one of only a few accessible places where they breed, and it was neat to see them alongside Baird's Sandpipers, one of the few species Canada has in common with Chile. Bright-rumped Yellow-Finches and some Ash-breasted Sierra-Finches kept us company while we ate breakfast and tried some coca tea. The tea is apparently good for keeping altitude sickness at bay, and it seemed to work, as Regan and I both felt fine despite the high elevation (~4100m here).

Andean Gull

Scenery near the lakes

Laguna Miñiques

After a walk along a pathway by Miscanti, where most of the Horned Coots were, we hopped back in the van, driving past a few Lesser Rheas on our way down from the lakes. We made a few stops, in the small towns of Socaire and Toconao, to check out some of the local farms (this arid region is surprisingly important agriculturally, with many small oases growing all sorts of things), a church, and for people to buy souvenirs and the like (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26674590).

Socaire

Next up was a stop at Laguna Chaxa, an alkali lake and salt flat that held nice flocks of flamingos and shorebirds (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26674684). The path here wasn't very long, and after the introductory tour, Regan and I spent some time photographing the Puna Plovers and flamingos. We managed to get looks at all three species of expected flamingos here, however the James's were too distant for photos. A few Andean Avocets were also out on the salt flats, providing us both with a lifer.

Andean Flamingo

Puna Plover

Laguna Chaxa

All too soon, it was time to go, and on our way back to town we added an American Kestrel to the trip list. We spent the afternoon relaxing at the hostel and checking out the town a bit more. I should also mention just how dry the place was! Perhaps not surprising in a place that receives hardly any rain, but the hygrometer on my phone pretty consistently read below 10% relative humidity, reaching as low as 6 or 7% a few times. It was so dry that my nose bled at one point, and the blood dried before it even left my nostril... Keeping hydrated was also a challenge, as it didn't seem to matter how much water we drank - we always needed more.

Running trip list: 48

Jan 5

An even earlier morning, and once again Margarita was our guide for the day. The reason for the early departure (05:00 pickup) was that, in order to fully appreciate the El Tatio geysers, one has to be there just before sunrise. After loading up the van, we were off in the morning gloom and headed up in elevation, arriving at our destination at about 06:45. We had been told to bundle up, as it can be pretty cold up there before the sun rises. I had put on all the clothes I had with me, but after acclimatizing to 30C sunshine, I was not really prepared for the -5C temperatures at 4300m! After a tour around the main geyser field and a breakfast break, we were given an hour or so of 'free time'. Most people went for a swim in the hot springs, while Regan and I wandered around the area in search of birds, rocks, and other cool things. There weren't a lot of the former to be had; some Andean Gulls, a flock of Andean Flamingos, some calling Puna Tinamous and a couple of sierra-finches and Puna Plovers (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26697529). The geysers were quite scenic though!

The geyserfield at El Tatio

One of the hot pools with colourful minerals

After our free time, we all piled back into the bus and headed back toward San Pedro. On the way were two stops that we had been waiting for, but just before we arrived at Vados del Putana (a high elevation bog formed by a small river), we spotted a Lesser Rhea wandering around the desert. We pointed it out to Margarita and Mauricio (our other guide), and they quickly told the driver something that we couldn't hear. Without skipping a beat, he pulled the bus off the road, and we were cruising through the desert toward the rhea! All the other tourists were wondering what was going on, and when we got closer they pointed the rhea out to everyone. I'm not sure if anyone but us thought much of it though. Once we arrived at Putana, we had some time to scan the bog while the guides took everyone else around, pointing out some of the more charismatic birds (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26697575). Puna Teal, Giant Coot, and Andean Negrito were all new for us, and we got better looks at some birds we had seen the day before on the drive to the altiplano lakes. We also saw our first Viscacha here, a chinchilla-like mammal of the high Andes.

Giant Coot

A few minutes down the road, we stopped at a small wetland that had some Llamas feeding in it - the locals tie coloured ribbons to the Llamas so they can identify them. Not long after, we pulled in to the small village of Machuca, located beside another high-elevation wetland. The main draw here is a restaurant that offers Llama steaks for the tourists to try. We did want to try them, but after seeing the lineup and being told we had about 50 minutes here, we decided to skip that experience and wandered off down a dirt road beside the wetland, keeping an eye on the time (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26697608). This was definitely the best birding spot that we visited around San Pedro, and we quickly added Yellow-billed Pintail, Yellow-billed Teal and Rufous-naped Ground-Tyrant to our life lists. A bit of searching turned up a female Andean Hillstar and a few Red-backed Sierra-Finches among the more common sierra-finch species. The roadside shrubs were crawling with Cordilleran Canasteros, and the marsh held quite a few waterfowl, cinclodes and Andean Negritos. It was quite fun to watch the antics of the negritos as they foraged in the bog.

Red-backed Sierra-Finch

Andean Negrito

The wetlands at Machuca

Once we figured we'd seen everything along the road, we headed back to check out the area on the east side of the bridge. A couple of Gray-breasted Seedsnipe and a Puna Snipe rewarded us for our efforts here, and then it was time to head back to the bus. Back on board, we didn't make it far before our next stop - at a small lake that held a large flock of flamingos and some Silvery Grebes. Despite scanning the flamingos several times, I was unable to turn up any James's among them. Then we were off, heading back through the desert toward San Pedro, where we spent the afternoon and evening relaxing at the hostel with some other backpackers, a few of whom were also Canadian.

Descending from Machuca towards San Pedro

Running trip list: 58

Jan 6

After two early mornings in a row, we had a bit of a lie-in and were off to a slow start. I think I spent most of the morning on eBird, making a plan of attack for the upcoming days. After a late breakfast (more like lunch), we walked over to a bike rental shop we had seen during our earlier explorations of town, and rented a couple of bikes for the afternoon, for a reasonable price. Our first mission with the bikes was to make it farther down the river valley north of town, and we biked past Pukará on our way to Catarpe. In the heat of the day, there weren't a ton of birds active, but I did manage to finally get photos of a White-winged Cinclodes, and the Gray-bellied Shrike-Tyrant we had found a few days earlier was still there, and posed for photos this time (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26737133). We made it as far as the gate near the end of the road before turning around, and explored a few side trails on our way back. The only new bird was a young Variable Hawk, hiding in a dead tree beside the road. The scenery was quite nice though, and made the ride well worth it.

The valley on the way to Catarpe

Interesting rock formations

Back at the hostel, we rested up a bit and got some food, and then headed out on our next mission. One of the 'must-see' attractions in San Pedro is the sunset at Valle de la Luna. You can book a tour to do this, but we opted for the more adventurous (and cheaper) way to get there. It took us 1h20 to do the 12 km uphill bike with the wind blasting in our faces the entire time, but we did make it there, and after locking up our bikes we hiked up the giant sand dunes and rocks to the top, in time to watch the sun going down.

Regan with the sunset at Valle de la Luna

A few minutes before the sun dropped though, we realized we had to get going if we were to make it back in time to return our bikes. The bike shop owner had been quite adamant that we'd have to pay for an extra day if we were late, and so back toward town we headed. With the wind at our backs and a downhill slope the entire way to town, we made it back in 50 minutes, including stopping several times to take photos of the scenery and sunset. We pulled in to the bike shop just a few minutes before our 21:00 deadline, returned the bikes and then went for dinner, our last in San Pedro.

Taking a break to watch the sunset

Running trip list: 59

Jan 7

We packed up our stuff after breakfast, said goodbye to our fellow travellers and the hostel owner, and headed off to find the bus station. It proved more difficult to find than we had anticipated (it was on the opposite side of town), but we made it there just in time to board the 09:45 bus to Calama. On the southern outskirts of Calama, we had an Oasis Hummingbird coming to a flowering tree right beside the bus when we were stopped for some traffic, the only one I'd see for the entire trip. Getting in to town, we hopped in a cab and headed to Hotel Atenas, where we arranged a room for the night (21000p for a room with two beds). I don't really remember why we chose this one in particular, but it was decent enough. After dropping our bags, we caught a colectivo up to the Codelco office at the north end of town, in time to catch the 13:00 tour of Chuquicamata. It was pretty interesting, going around the abandoned mining town which is slowly being buried as the mine expands, checking out a museum and learning about the mining process before actually going in to the edge of the mine. Chuquicamata is one of the larget open-pit mines in the world, at something like 5 km long and over 1 km across. It was truly vast, as were the enormous dump trucks that were carrying rock and ore out of it - at 8m tall, they dwarfed our bus quite easily.

Panorama of the mine

After the tour, we walked the 3 km back to our hotel, grabbed our birding gear and then walked another 2.5 km to a spot on the Rio Loa (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S26761536). The neighbourhood here was a bit sketchy, but nobody bothered us as we searched for our target. The search didn't take long, and after only a few minutes I found a small family group of Slender-billed Finches. This is the southernmost limit of their range, and the only chance we'd have on our trip! A skulking Common Gallinule was also new for our trip list here. After this success, we called it a day, and grabbed some empanadas for dinner on our walk back to the hotel.

Running trip list: 62

Jan 8

Our flight the next morning was at 06:30, so we were up early to pack our stuff and hop in a taxi to the airport. On our way back to Santiago, most of the country was clouded in, so we didn't have the spectacular scenery to look at - only the in-flight entertainment. Touching down in Santiago, our time in the north of the country was officially over, so I'll end this post here. With 62 species and almost all of our hoped-for targets, we were quite happy with our five full days around San Pedro and Calama! Most birding tours go farther north, to the Arica-Putre-Lauca areas. This adds a few species that barely make it into Chile from Peru/Bolivia, and has the added bonus of a chance at the endemic Chilean Woodstar, but misses out on Red-backed Sierra-Finch and Horned Coot. In this case, the trade-off was finding enough touristy things to keep Regan happy while also providing a chance at some northern Chile specialty birds for me, and it worked out quite well!