La Campana, Chile, 25 April 2016ex

La Campana, our target for the day, is a mountain about 5,500 ft high in the coastal ranges north of Santiago. Its a national park, famed for receiving a visit from Charles Darwin and because it holds one of the remaining populations of the rare Chilean Palm. The Palm is failing to regenerate from the seeds it produces and only a few small remnant populations exist. It's vegetation is of further interest in that it is arid cactus and acacia (and palms) on the northern slopes, but is forested on the southern slopes with the most northern Nothofagus (Sourhern Beech) in South America. (Might be too many Norths and Souths in that sentence. Ed.) We made the usual pre dawn departure and headed our of the city with a stopover at Batuco Laguna, a lagoon and wetland on the edge of the city. It was a very chilly pre dawn (4 degrees) with heavy mist, which also closed out the basin hiding the wetland. Anyway gum boots on, plenty of clothing and we left the car on an exceedingly dodgy looking garbage littered back road near a very grotty outskirts town and headed across the wetland plain, very flat and poorly drained but not too boggy. A bit of a wander through the mist and we could have been anywhere. The birdlife was great, with some interesting species on the ground like the outrageously colourful meadow lark. Photos were hopeless in the mist but it was breaking up, and we walked on in hope. Ahead of us a moderate size lagoon was covered in wildfowl, but before we got there a long awaited encounter took place - the burrowing owl. A low mound, probably just high enough to dig a modest hole without it filling with water, was the home of four birds. They are a small to medium owl, with long legs and a straight stance. They stood at attentions and watched our approach, then retreated 50 metres or so when we got too close. Striking yellow eyes, and all the character that owls seem to possess. We were so delighted and hugged at the sight of them, as they stared just as intently back at us (but no hugs.) The mist was lifting and the place looked surreal. Behind the Owls a line of Andean geese grazed. These birds and anything else called 'Andean' effectively live in the mountains, but typical migrate downwards or north to south, as winter comes and goes and the snowline rises and falls. The Andes are so broad and long they are effectively a large country in their own right, with their own flora and fauna, but commonly migratory as mentioned above. The lake was teaming with wild fowl and we had to admit the range and beauty of the species was well out of our (NZ) league. Meanwhile the mist continued to break and the hills show through, plus some aircraft as the approach was directly above us. Fine by me - look up, look down... action. The vehicle, carrying everything we had, was not torched or robbed so good news, and we could continue on to La Campana. A couple of hours on the motorway and then off into rural country, with small towns and small scale agriculture of every description. We stopped in a town near the park and lunched in a local restaurant. Open wood fire, cement floor and adobe and stone walls, plus a plasma screen broadcasting the identical rubbish we get on middle of the day tv, but in Spanish of course. But we just loved the place with its locals and its humble but very enjoyable fare. A leg of chicken, on rice, with a glass of Chilean savy. About now we agreed we were getting the first real feeling of being in rural Chile. Down south was less populated, where'as here there were bustling rural townships. After lunch we drove the remaining short distance to the park, which surrounds the prominent mountain La Campana. The park can be accessed via one of the three valleys that extend from the peak - in our case we we entering the one that contained the Chilean Palms. They were immediately visibly - massive elephant leg like but tall trunks, in a rocky environment including cacti and thorny acacia shrubs. Very prehistoric in character. The ground was dry and barren, except that the recent rain had carpeted it with germinating seeds. Almost immediately we saw a small rodent with curved tail, crouching and feeding in the weeds. Highly strung, they fed as a group and occasionally exploded into a pannic and headed for cover. A few minutes would pass and they would creep out and resume eating. Individually they could not hold their nerve long and even if there were no general group scramble each individual would regularly retire and recover its nerve before rejoining the others. The was plenty of bird activity and as we walked we just bumped into sight after sight. Meanwhile the striking Palm trees made powerful statements with their soaring trunks, in groups or singly. Overhead various Hawks patrolled the skies. Not only was it very rich in birdlife a lot of it was ground dwelling, including an oddity called a Tinamou and even some Tabucolas. Finally I got a photograph of one of the species of Tabucola. This individual bird seemed less afraid of us and did some brief struts on the track so we could appreciate its curious appearance with large feet and high angled tail. We stayed until about 6 pm reluctant to leave the place, but our hotel was in a rural town an hour away and on the other side of the mountain (La Campana) so we headed off. We immediately warmed to the town, called Olmue, with its narrow but clean streets, modest packed in houses and people on the street including the odd horse rider. La Campana was a close and handsome backdrop to the town and cloaked in green forest on this side, as we would find out the next day. The town itself was also well tree'd with avenues of plane trees showing their autumn colour. Around the town we had seen all the produce growing as we drove in, including what looked like family holdings as well as larger farms including oranges, olives and vineyards. Suddenly I really felt we were finally there, in real Chile. The hotel did not disappoint it was a lovely old building with cavernous additional restaurant seating under attached additions, apparently to host weddings and the like. The staff gave us gringos a very warm welcome and we settled in. Shanti was tuckered and went to bed so Fernando and I did dinner and some local wine, while solving the various problems of Chile. Not too late to bed as surprise- surprise we would need to get up early and drive into the forest, on the flank of the mountain.