Nova Scotia Nature Trust's Expedition for the Earth Dispatch
February 5, 2013 – We’re Having a Hoot!
Part I:
Nova Scotia Nature Trust Expedition
for the Earth Group Shot
Its morning of the 5th February and Nova Scotia Nature Trust Expedition for the Earth is on the trail! We have left Hotel Torres, where we spent the last two nights, and I’ll have to say it was a really enjoyable stay there. Fabulous setting, excellent food, great staff, we really enjoyed it as our first base for the trip.
Yesterday’s hike was amazing. We climbed about 800 meters. Now first of all you need to understand, even though there are spectacular glaciers around us and a very alpine setting in terms of mountains and lakes, we are only at about 135m above sea level as we start out. So yesterday’s climb was quite strenuous and as you’ll see from the fabulous photograph that Deborah Stover took we had amazing views. Our weather is continuing to be good and it is pretty much matching the forecast that we posted. Yesterday was much less windy and even though there was some clouds above, we had great views as you can see.
Felipe, our lead Chilean guide, he’s talking about learning moments and he’ll stop along the trail, he’ll pull out his bird book or he’ll just share with us some identification of plants and animals and bird life around us. We’ll also talk some about land issues. You’ll note again, Deborah’s wonderful photograph, that we got a great sighting of an Austral Pygmy Owl.
Listen to Wally's call
Part II:
Deborah Stover captured this amazing photo of an Austral Pygmy Owl.
The Austral Pygmy Owl was beautiful. We also saw Magellanics (black woodpeckers) and we saw several other birds, but we were lucky enough to see on our first day of hiking a really giant female adult condor. Seeing the condor anywhere in the Andes or in the cordillera of South America is always a thrill and a good omen.
Today we set out hiking, as I said, we left Hotel Torres and we’re heading for Los Cuernos, which will be a hostel, a refugio as we say in South America, where we will be spending the night. One of the things you should note, and we’ve talking about it quite a lot, is that all of the land that we have been on at this point and the trail that we are hiking today is in private land. It’s an inholding, the original ranching family who had this place before the national park is cooperating with the park service to run this operation. The trails we’re hiking on are maintained privately and we have all natural settings around us… even though in generations prior, this place had been managed very, very differently with sheep ranching and other private interests. So, interesting situation, all we know is we’re in one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever visited. All the 13 members of Nova Scotia Nature Trust, Leila and I from Berg Adventures, and here in South America from Berg Adventures, Felipe and Harry are having a fantastic time together. The adventure’s just beginning; we got a few more days so please stay tuned.