Back from 3 days in woods

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The students returned Tuesday from three days of camping at a spectacularly beautiful site on Lake Robalo, with the rugged, snow-covered Los Dientes de Navarino in the background. Days were full of hiking and activities that included capturing and banding birds, monitoring water quality and aquatic invertebrate populations in the Robalo River, learning about research on invasive mammals and learning about the plants of the region. With the exception of a few showers and one overnight hard rain, we had sunny weather, which helped a lot. Everyone now is back in Puerto Williams, showered, in clean clothes for the first time in three days (the trails were very muddy) and fed. A full slate of activities begins in the morning.

 

Arrived on Navarino

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The nine UConn students arrived in Puerto Williams on the island of Navarino about midnight Saturday, ending a 33-hour ferry ride west on the Straits of Magellan and then east on the Beagle Chanel. We ran into much rain and wind but the water wasn’t particularly choppy so everyone enjoyed the trip. We saw a number of glaciers that run from the high mountains of the Darwin Cordillera south to the Beagle Chanel; all are receding, of course.  Sleeping was quite comfortable on the ferry, and spirits remain high in spite of the rain. The sun in shining today, which is wonderful because we are about to start hiking up Mount Robalo and will camp there for three days. May the sunshine continue. Internet access here is extremely limited so I will be unable to post more  news  or images until we return to Connecticut.

 

Arrived in Punta Arenas

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The nine UConn students arrived safely in Punta Arenas early Wednesday morning, tired but happy to be off an airplane and out of an airport. A couple of the students had been traveling for more than 42 hours. Unfortunately, four students arrived in Santiago without their checked bags, which never got on the plane from Miami. American Airlines promises to get the bags to us in Punta Arenas later today.

 

10 days to departure

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The trip to subantarctic Chile is approaching. Dr. Robert Capers will lead nine students to the southernmost inhabited island in the world for a 3 week course entitled Tracing Darwin’s Path, focused on environmental philosophy, bicultural conservation and general field ecology. Bon voyage.