Hola! from Chile

Hola!

I got your letter. Thank you.

Chile is a goofy-foot paradise. In the the North the waves are slabbing, powerful and hollow. The Central Region, close to Santiago, has fun waves although not as intense as the north. The South Region has many left point-breaks. My favourite place was Puertecillo. It was cold and there was always a soupy fog that sometimes fell off cliffs as waterfalls. Dirt roads made my joints ache, the motorbike had little comfort. There is no shortage of swell the seals like to play in. I watched them one evening as I sat at my warm campfire: sliding, gliding, slipping, leaping, twisting, surfing.

Along the coast of Chile I studied hummingbirds on the the island of Juan Fernandez. I had to lay down my pack and climb down the cliff face by tree roots, at time holding a rocky ledge by one hand while searching with the other through fern and grass. There is a trail at the top of one mountain where sixty years ago an English man-o-war’s crew erected a tablet in memory of Alexander Selkirk, the well known Robinson Crusoe who spent four years and four months in complete solitude on the island.

Changing the subject, one day I noticed a bunch of kelp a short distance from me being agitated more than seemed natural by the light wind and sea, so paddled up to it and it was not kelp, but a school of squid feeding. They were up to four or five-feet long; to see them rise above the water , reach forward and back toward the mouth about four times a minute, incredible. Looking further out, there were acres and acres of them. Birds were feeding amongst them. Terns, shearwaters, and gulls fed on small shrimps.

I made my first acquaintance with a strange goose one afternoon. They stand about the surf-beaten rocky points like the gulls, the male is pure white and the female dark.

My favourite friends were the circling albatross. I think they are Salvin’s Albatross, Thalassarche salvini. These albatross breed in the Bounty Islands of New Zealand. Imagine traversing the Pacific Ocean on a wing and wind. Thalassarche salvini has a grey head and neck, with a lighter forehead, a narrow dark supra-orbital stripe, the upper culminicorn and lower parts of the bill pale yellow and sides blackish-yellow. An orange line was distinguishable at the base of the mandible. I got this close look when the Albatross would rest amongst the penguins on the rocks.

I have to say, I worry about the recently established Pulp Mills in Chile. Initially the plants say they will release effluents into nearby rivers after a three-stage purification and sludge press but, effluent is pumped straight into the sea. This involves acid and basic effluents being carried through a submarine outfall and discharged. I met local fisherman. They are worried for their future as the sea life die, and the seabird eggs rot quickly. The seabird are a barometer of health of the surrounding sea, and the message is that all is not well. The Save the Waves coalition is spearheading efforts in challenging the pulp mills. I worry about my ocean friends if they do not succeed in change.

Chau, my friend.

Cheele Cheele: