Today’s Chronicle can be found here.
Early start to the day – we rolled up to Robinson Crusoe shortly after 7 am. At 7:30 am, Expedition Leader Peter made the call – it’s safe to operate! (Though there are wind guests of over 40 knots, so no kayaking today.)
Days and days we had waited for this moment, and it was a complete non-event. But no complaints here – we’re just thrilled that we will have made every single landing scheduled for this trip, plus a bonus visit to Henderson Island.
We elected to do the strenuous hike out to El Yunque Park, which meant an 8:15 am zodiac departure. My wife had bought – and read through! – a Lonely Planet guide to Chile that included a section on Robinson Crusoe, so we already had a sense of the island’s points of interest and knew that El Yunque is a real highlight for nature lovers.
One quick-but-windy zodiac ride later, we were ashore:
We soon queued up with the dozen-or-so hikers for this trip and then set off – stopping briefly along the way to view the rare and endemic sonchus brassicifolius or cabbage tree:
The sky was dark and dramatic – which made me wonder if we might get some rain later, despite none being in the forecast:
We’re already surprised at the number of playgrounds here – this is the third one, and we’re only a few hundred metres from the landing site!
The island has a population of perhaps a thousand people, and has been growing in recent years. We’ve been struck by the huge array of flower gardens everywhere. Even this tiny parkette is awash in blooms:
The contrast between the palms, pine trees and mountains is striking:
Cloud cover continues to roll over the mountains. It feels like it could pour at any minute, but we only feel a few drops:
This fellow certainly seems cozy enough:
Another rare and endemic flower – Ochagavia elegans, sometimes referred to as ‘ajo dulce’:
Onward and upward. We have roughly 300 metres of elevation gain during this hike, but it feels easier than recent hikes due to the cooler weather. Even at 15 Celsius (60 Farenheit) I’m just in hiking pants and a T-shirt.
Our group members move at a range of paces, but with three expedition guides we’re able to space out the group without any issues.
We’ve left the town behind, and the scenery continues to impress:
As we approach El Yunque, the ground becomes blanketed in Forget-me-nots:
It’s truly magical. As Kara says, “I keep expecting faeries to come out from behind the trees.”
We enter El Yunque itself – which even has bathrooms! – and soon come across one of the rarest of species on the island, and a mega-tick for birders: the Juan Fernandez firecrown hummingbird:
They move quickly and it’s a dark forest, so they’re tough to photograph – but we count ourselves lucky to have spotted one at all.
We continue on through the park, following a well-maintained boardwalk path as we move through majestic old-growth forest:
All too soon, we find ourselves back at the start of the trail.
I loop around again to see if I can spot another firecrown. And success!
Although initially I believed this to be another species, this white and emerald hummingbird is the female of the species.
And then – jackpot – a closer, clearer shot of the male:
But the show isn’t over yet:
What a remarkable place. One of the true highlights of the trip.
We check in with Hike Leader Chris, and let him know we’re heading back on our own. We spot more flowers as we go:
And it’s not long before we’re back in town once more. We go in search of postcards, but find only eager dogs:
We attempt to stop in at a cafe but found it unfortunately closed due to today’s holiday, Reformation Day. Ah, well. But we do find postcards and stickers in the ring of stores closer to the landing site. (No stamps, unfortunately – we’ll have to find some when we return to mainland Chile.)
We stopped in at the local tourism office, where we were able to take a photo of the island map…
…Though I forgot to include the legend! Ah, well.
Our eSIM isn’t working here, but I did download the Spanish dictionary for Google Translate in advance – which has again proven crucial. From here we were able to identify a restaurant named Terruño that would be open – though unfortunately the seafood-heavy menu was not to everyone’s tastes.
We carried on along the road, looking for the spot where the island was shelled during the British battle with the Dresden – and spot some fur seals along the way:
The Dresden site is well marked with signs, and we soon found the area where the shells hit – including an unexploded shell!
We wandered back along the shoreline, passing more playgrounds as we go:
Having had no luck with finding a suitable restaurant in town, we decided to head off toward Isla Pacifico – where the pirate party would be held – to see if we could find lunch there.
Preparations for the party were in full swing, but unfortunately no lunch available. Only an hour or so left until the party, however, so we elect to wander til then.
One of the bridge crew noted that there were some more fur seals further on along the shore, so we carried on:
And find fur seals aplenty!
There were hundreds of them – swimming, splashing, playing, fighting over coveted rocks, and so on. It was endlessly entertaining. We could have stayed there all day.
We particularly enjoyed the ridiculous ways the Juan Fernandez fur seals regulate their temperatures – namely by sticking various flippers out of the water:
This fellow seems to think he’s an otter. Otterly ridiculous, that is.
But time marches on…
… And soon it’s time for the pirate party:
We’d been on the island all day, so we didn’t stick around too long – just long enough to grab a pisco sour and some tasty empanadas:
And listen to some music:
Alexander Selkirk’s oldest living descendant is in attendance too! (Though not pictured.)
Then back to the landing site, where we requested – and were granted – an impromptu zodiac cruise after John mentioned a cave around the corner where he’d spotted some fur seals:
Back aboard, where we rounded out our lunch with a spot of room service. Then it was time to shower and change for the captain’s farewell:
Congratulations to all those who received awards for October, including the senior security officer, Donati the incinerator operator, Catherine from housekeeping, and Gilbert the bosun.
Off to La Terrazza where we had dinner with the ship’s doctor, Manuel Cruz. We’re thrilled to get the chance to peek behind the curtain of the Cloud’s medical centre. He explained that there are three medical crew members – himself, a senior nurse, and a junior nurse – and that either he or the senior nurse need to be aboard the ship and on call at all times.
Itineraries like this one are among the most challenging, as they are often incredibly far from specialist medical facilities. One passenger suffered a detached retina when they were in Tonga, and there was very little they could do in terms of emergency medical evacuation. The passenger’s doctor at home eventually determined that the passenger could travel by commercial aviation, but otherwise might have had to be medically evacuated to the Cook Islands and then back to New Zealand (at more than USD$160,000 so make sure you check your medevac coverage).
Some of the injuries that are particular to Pacific cruises include dehydration, heat exhaustion, heat rash, and the occasional coral scrape. The most common injury overall are burns from hot plates – when they tell you it’s hot, it’s hot! Dr. Cruz has served on both classic and expedition cruises and does not have a particular preference – classic cruises make for easier evacuations, but expedition cruises tend to be more lucrative as there are very few places to spend the money you’re making.
We briefly dropped in to check out the Halloween Party:
But ultimately we spent the evening watching the World Series in the Observation Lounge. A big thank you to Derry at Reception for helping us figure out how to connect my laptop to the television.
This made for a particularly late night – up til after midnight! – but thankfully there’s little on the agenda tomorrow apart from packing up for disembarkation and our flight to the Atacama.