Day 2
January 3, 2008
All goes well until we get to Santiago Chile and find that our flight to Punta Arenas has been cancelled. We get put on standby for the next flight but if we don´t make that we will arrive in Tierra del Fuego a day late.
Luckily, they manage to get all 5 of us on the flight although it is packed. Flying over the Andes is phenomenal. The pilot points out a volcano out of the left windows of the plane, very strange to see with its snow covered peak. When we get closer to Punta Arenas, the terrain flattens out and we have our first view of the mudflats that will be our main focus to survey for red knots.
No problems upon arrival in Punta Arenas, all of our luggage arrives and we head out to the campground, about a 4 hour drive and a ferry trip across the Straits of Magellan. On the ferry, we get our first glipse of Magellanic penguins playing in the surf around the boat. There are a few dolphins as well riding the waves alongside.
Arriving in camp, we set up the tents, settle down for a quick dinner and go to sleep. It´s been a long 2 days of travel and we have an early day tomorrow. One thing that will be an adjustment is the change in daylength. This close to the Antarctic and we get daylight from about 5 am until 10 pm.