Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 14 – San Jose de Maipo can be found here.
Up at 8:30 am this morning, which was later than usual – and later than it should have been. We struggled to make breakfast at 9 am, and very nearly missed our 10 am tour.
Thankfully, everyone pulled together at the last moment to grab our gear and get out the door – and we arrived at the information booth to learn that our guide Lucas had already come and gone.
But we were still 5 minutes early, so we were confident that Lucas would soon return – and return he did. And then we were on our way to the wildlife refugio:
There are different levels of wildlife reserves in Chile. The Cascada refugio is private, which means that it does not receive government funding – instead it relies on support from the Cascada de las Animas resort and from the public. Cascada’s private reserve covers more than 3,600 hectares.
The refugio had initially started as a parrot reproduction centre, but soon realized the challenges associated with reproductive work among rescued animals – such animals are often so stressed or injured that they are not able to reproduce in anything approaching a reasonable timeline.
(This mirrors what we’d been told at the Condor Huasi in Ecuador, too.)
The bulk of the refugio‘s work started around 2005, when Santiago started growing rapidly – collisions between animals and humans increased accordingly, and the Chilean government began asking for further help with injured and reclaimed animals.
They started working with parrots initially:
This was where they realized their limited ability to support reproduction – only 2 parrots have been born in captivity since the refugio first started.
We then moved inside the refugio, and had the chance to meet some of the other animals.
The overwhelming majority of the animals leave the refugio – 40 to 45% are released back into the wild, and unfortunately 30 – 35% die due to their ailments. It’s only perhaps 5% of the animals that are unable to return to the wild and remain at the refugio.
One example is the tucúquere owl, Tuka, who could not be released as the result of having imprinted on humans. However, she remains an excellent hunter, and so she continues teach other owls how to hunt.
Photo Credit: Cascada Refugio’s website
Tuka met a partner in the refugio – a one-eyed owl named Odin, who’s not able to hunt due losing his eye early. But he is able to teach other owls how to be owls, especially specific male owl calls. So it balances out neatly…
We then saw the two eagles, Witch and Blue:
The refugio’s walls are painted with the reasons behind the animals’ arrival – hunters and fires. It’s a striking reminder of humans’ impact in the world.
We then went on to meet Miel the fox – a beautiful creature who has also imprinted on humans. The presence of a bed in the enclosure is the result of humans’ having habituated the foxes to sleeping on or under their beds (seriously).
Miel also represents a cautionary tale in that she was brought in by trekkers who’d thought she had been abandoned by her parents – but the veterinary examination revealed that she was well-fed. At this point she had also imprinted on humans, and it was too late to release her back into the wild.
We left the main refugio building and carried on to see some of the local plants, including the Quillaja saporanaria – the soap bark tree – which produces a natural lather when wet. The inner bark has been used as a soap substitute for various commercial products, and is even used in fire-fighting foams.
We then learned about the boldo shrub, which has sharp leaves – and which has also been used by Chilean cowboys as a way of preventing baldness. (No guarantees as to the scientific accuracy of this claim!)
We then moved on to the litre tree, which can cause irritation. Superstition holds that Chileans should say, “Hello Mr. Litre!” to avoid its wrath. It contains a urushiol similar to the allergens in poison oak and poison ivy.
Then we saw the palo negro tree, which is a natural cure for litre – and which smells like toasted nuts. There’s a thick, moisturizer-like sap on the leaves. There’s a Chilean saying – when the devil was planting litre, God was beside him planting palo negro. Some of the local residents would make crosses out of the palo negro to ward off evil spirts.
We then went to try to see the pumas, Echo and Maqui. Echo was believed to have been kept by a man who was using it to train his dogs to detect pumas – which they believe caused Echo’s poorly-healed broken bones, along with his inadequate diet.
Maqui and Huilo had become habituated to people, which is why they can’t be reintroduced into the wild. We’d spotted a puma on the other side of the river back in 2006, and there’s a chance that it was Huilo we spotted then.
No luck spotting Echo from the camoflauged rooms that are set in the low ground, but we did see Maqui. What a beautiful creature:
Sadly, no professional-grade shots this time – I’d left my camera back at the loft dome. But the kids really enjoyed seeing a puma, even more so when our guide explained that pumas seen in the wild in this area are likely becoming habituated to humans – a less-than-desirable outcome.
We then went back to the refugio and Lucas showed us their “Darwin room” – full of some incredible specimens. He quizzed the kids, and was quite impressed by what they’d learned.
This was one of the lesser-known excursions at Cascada de las Animas, but we’re so glad we did it – definitely a highlight of the trip so far. Hopefully it becomes more widely visited by the Cascada’s international visitors.
We said our goodbyes, picked up a few souvenirs – a shirt and a sticker – then went back to the resort for lunch. We had another round of burgers and smoothies at the cafeteria. Very tasty!
We then went off to do some more writing and homework for a bit, and then my son and I went off to do the ziplining. It was a bit of a slow process getting everyone registered and kitted out, but soon we were flying overtop the Rio de Maipo:
And my wife very kindly got another perspective of the same trip:
We then got to zipline back from the other side:
But by the time we got back to the other side of the river, it was time to head off for an early dinner.
We’d previously mentioned that the resort was watering the football pitch constantly – I’m pleased to report that they seemed to stop after that first, long 24 hours of watering. (Though they do still use a lot of water in their landscaping.)
Back to dinner – where we had some empanadas:
I had the steak with hummus – this time perfectly cooked:
We said goodbye to the kitchen cat:
And departed for our final night at Cascada de las Animas.
Continue reading Antarctica to Zimbabwe – Day 16 – San Jose de Maipo/Santiago.