We said goodbye to the Coral Princess first thing in the morning. The whole disembarkment process and immigration process was very painless and well organised. We headed a very short distance to pick up our two vehicles - a small van and a 4x4 with an open back. As a result, all the baggage had to be carried in the back of the van that Billy and myself drove over the next few days. We had a bit of a wait until the car rental opened.
We were a little concerned in the run-up to this part of the trip as
there had been widespread civil unrest in Chile for a few months as a
result of the rising cost of day to day life and general inequality in the country. 36 protesters had been killed and thousand injured and arrested. States of
emergency had been declared in many areas of the country. While we were waiting, signs of the ongoing protests were evident on the streets in the form of numerous graffiti on walls, remains of roadside fires and even some of the large windows of the rental place were boarded up having been smashed by protesters. We encountered two small marches during the entire trip but otherwise we had no trouble whatsoever thankfully.
We eventually sorted out the paperwork for the rental vehicles. Neither vehicle was up to the main car rental standards as they were probably the dirtiest rental vehicles I have encountered. Anyway we were shortly on our way to Parque Humedal Rio Maipo just on the outskirts of San Antonio. This quite a productive little area where the Maipo River flows into the sea. Nice selection of species here including Giant Hummingbird (largest hummingbird in the world), Hudsonian Godwit, Grey Gull, Peruvian Booby & Pelican, White-tailed Kite, Cinereous Harrier, the extremely shy Dusky Tapaculo, stunning Many-coloured Rush-Tyrant and Yellow-winged Blackbird.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S63073917
We moved across the city over to the north side of the city. We had forgotten that it was a Sunday and every beach-front area was absolutely crammed with locals. Parking was nightmare but we eventually found a small nature reserve called Humedal de Cartagena, just behind the coast consisting of brackish lagoon. We did not stay long as we were moving inland and up into the hills for the next few days. While it was a brief visit there was a nice selection of waterbirds present.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S63074285
On our way to our final destination of Hostería de Vilches we dropped off Jim Dowdall in the town of Talagante. Jim made the short journey from here into Santiago to catch his flight back home. From here on out it would be just the five of us.
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| Juvenile White-tailed Kite |
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| Juvenile White-tailed Kite |
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| Adult White-tailed Kite |
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| Adult White-tailed Kite |
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| Male Cinereous Harrier |
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| Male Cinereous Harrier |
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| Male Cinereous Harrier |
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| Hudsonian Whimbrel |
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| Hudsonian Whimbrel |
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| American Oystercatcher |
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| Mixed skimmer, gull and tern flock. |
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| Grey Gull, Brown-hooded Gull, Black Skimmer, Hudsonian Whimbrel & Black-necked Stilt. |
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| Grey Gull, Black Skimmer, & Hudsonian Whimbrel. |
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| Black Skimmer, Elegant Tern and Black-necked Stilt. |
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| Black Skimmer |
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| Franklin's Gull |
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| Franklin's Gull |
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| Franklin's Gull |
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| Brown-hooded Gull |
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| Brown-hooded Gull |
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| Kelp Gull |
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| Black-crowned Night Heron |
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| Peruvian Pelican |
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| Giant Hummingbird |
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| Giant Hummingbird |
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| Giant Hummingbird |
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| Rufous-tailed Plantcutter |
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| Rufous-tailed Plantcutter |
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| Grassland Yellow-Finch |
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| Grassland Yellow-Finch |
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| Grassland Yellow-Finch |
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| Grassland Yellow-Finch |
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| Black-chinned Siskin |
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| Picui Ground Dove |
