Our South Pacific departure began on 5Feb from Grand Rapids, MI uneventful trip to Chicago, Ill (ORD) then to Toronto for our overnight flight to Santiago. We were able to stay in the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in Toronto before heading to our gate, we had a several hour layover. Trip was smooth and comfortable, arriving in Santiago feeling refreshed and excited as are heading to Valdivia to be back on Otra Vida.
Feelings of joy to be in Chile, seeing Martin at the airport and meeting Emma Goldman. We arrived to the boat and loaded the gear for the boat, food, and unpacked the outboard. Life on board Otra Vida feels like home. We begin our week cleaning and organizing, clearing the lockers for the food we will buy for the next few months, Chile to Tahiti. The four of us (Martin, Consu, Keith and I) spent an entire Saturday shopping for food. We had 10 carriages of supplies just at Unimarc, off to Jumbo next 3 more carriages, bulk store and last Taja for a lonely little basket. We decided to stop at El Growler for a beer and just sit enjoying each other’s company.
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| On Otra Vida in Valdivia |
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| Back on board |
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| Emma Goldman |
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| 10 carriages of supplies at Unimarc |
The new bimini was ready and off to the university the last week in Valdivia. The bimini is amazing, great work by Daniel and his crew at the university. It took 8 hours to put it in place, since it was late in the day we took the boat back to the marina. We walked back to the University for a Chilean barbecue. The guys are great, Daniel’s wife, Emily joined us for some beer, food and good conversation.
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| New Bimini |
Patty arrived on Valentine’s Day before we set off for sail to Juan Fernandez. Pere (Barcelona) and Piro joined the crew for our passage. Six of us enjoyed 4.5 days at sea with little wind and motoring towards Isla Robinson Crusoe. Spirits were high and full of excitement to be on the island of 800 people for some hiking and snorkeling.
We left Valdivia setting sail to our new life to journey the globe. The sail from the Continent was freeing, we saw a large pod of playful dolphins that lifted everyone's spirits. We all looked like children smiling and watching the play of these magical mammals of the sea.
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| Pere and Patty during our trip to Isla Robinson Crusoe (Juan Fernandez) |
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| Sunset over the Pacific |
The Parque Nacional Archipiélago Juan Fernandez Reserva de la Biósfera became a UNESCO National cultural site in 1976. Keith and I hiked one of the National Park sites Mirador Selkirk (565 meters above sea level) with Piro and Pere, we stopped along this vertical hike at the ruins of Alexander Selkirk’s home from 1704-1709. It was a grueling hike to the top taking us 2.5 hours but the panorama before us of Cumberland Bay was amazing then the clouds parted and we could see the other side of the island from here. Juan Fernandez is a hiker’s paradise with hard and moderate areas to hike on this volcanic island, some 298 nautical miles off the Chilean coast. A few days later we trekked with Martin and Emma to Al Centinela to the old radio station that existed from 1902 - 1927. This hike was 2.2 kilometers took us 2.0 hours moderate trek, the view of Cumberland Bay and Pacific Ocean (we sailed past this point when we arrived).
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| View arriving at Isla Robinson Crusoe |
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| Volcanic island with many hiking trails and views. |
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| View of Cumberland Bay from Mirador Selkirk hike |
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| Hiking to the summit |
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| Monument to Alexander Selkirk lived on the island for 4 years. |
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| Keith in front of the Memorial to Selkirk |
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| View to other side of the island from the top |
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| Other side of the island seen from the summit |
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| Anchorage where Otra Vida is anchored |
We spent some time working on the boat, reading, on land for dinner at Cerveza Artesanal Archipiélago microbrew and fine dining. The food was fantastic, so was the beer. On our last night on the island we met Jon Dunn from the Shetland Islands, who told us about the endangered Red Hummingbird, native to Juan Fernandez. He is doing a book on hummingbird’s and sea birds endangered by introduction of foreign plants and predators.
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| Jon Dunn |
Before we left Juan Fernandez, Consu and I met Pere to find the red hummingbird, there are only 400 of this species in existence. The Picaflor de Juan Ferández hummingbird habitat on Juan Fernandez is being destroyed by cats and rats. We were thrilled that Jon showed up as we saw the female of the species then a male.
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| Picaflor de Juan Fernández (hembra) |
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| Picaflor de Juan Fernánadez (male) |
This made our trip complete and we headed to the Armada to sign some forms then we left in the afternoon for a 19-20 day sail across the Pacific.
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| Preparing for the journey getting the propane tanks tied down |
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| Putting nets of citrus out |
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| Offering to Poseidon for safe journey |
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| GPS of our setting as we settled |
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| Leaving Juan Fernandez |
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| Leaving Juan Fernandez |
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| Our first sunset on our journey to Easter Island |
The hiking in Juan Fernandez was incredible, some difficult due to terrain and incline. We recommend trying Cervaza Archipiélago for dinner, view is great and the food is very good.
