In January 2003, together with two friends (Jürgen Hoh and Rolf Johannes) we took the Navimag boat to the Laguna San
Rafael which is situated at approx. 46º30'S in the fjords of South Chile. It
is famous for the San Rafael glacier calfing into the ocean. There we
assembled our folding kayaks and in an adventurous 1.5 day
trip we crossed the 20 km Istmo de Ofqui (3 km of swamp, mud and morass) to get to the Golfo de Penas.
We had planned to cross the golf to get to Cabo Raper, where upwellings are
supposed to produce a very rich marine life. We had heard that are many
whales around... But the weather was far too bad, we had
heavy rains and three strong storms, one of them on the day we crossed the Istmo the
second time: in the golf the winds reached 160 km/h and waves reached 11 m height!
So we spent a lot of time in our tents waiting for better conditions...
The pictures you see here were taken by Jürgen,
ours follow as soon as we have scanned them.
In summer 2002, we went to visit friends in Monterey,
CA. This place is the heaven for people who love marine mammals. 26 pecies of marine
mammals are permanently present and Monterrey also has beautiful dive sites etc.. After 2 weeks in
Monterey we took the Amtrak train to British Columbia, where we spent 4 weeks sea
kayaking with whales and bears at Vancouver Island and along the sunshine
coast. The last 2 weeks we were hiking in the Banff National Park (Rocky
Mountains) from Banff to Lake Luise. In 2003, I returned to the US for the
VII International Coelenterate congress in Lawrence. I spent 2 more weeks with our friends in Monterey to make a better use of
the long trip and enjoyed beautiful Monterey.
In August 2003, we took a week off to finally see
the Andes in winter. We crossed the Paso Samore from Osorno to Bariloche,
went ski-touring at Cerro Catedral (Bariloche) and at Cerro Chapelco (near
San Martin de los Andes) and finally went back to Chile crossing the Paso
Mamuil Malal to Pucon. The puelche wind ("Fön") was too strong to climb the Villarica volcano so we spent our last
day hiking in the Araucaria forests of the Huerquehue National Park.
We
had dreamt of visiting the Peninsula Valdes to see the Southern Right Whales
since we were studying in Chile, but we never had the time. This year we
finally did it and it was fantastic! Unfortunately a car is necessary to get
around at the Peninsula, so we took Lautaro and headed eastward... Its quite
a long trip to get to the Atlantic, 2 days one way with a night stop in the
region of Esquel. But it was very beautiful to see the landscape change (Pictures
of the trip) (it took us three days to get there because of electric
problems...). The landscape at the peninsula is quite different from Chile (pictures)
and there is an enormous amount of wildlife around (pictures).
Elephant seals are having their off-spring and mate. Fights of males can be
observed during high tide and are quite spectacular...You can see pinguins
(breeding) as well as guanacos, ñadus, foxes and armadillos. The most
fascinating animals to observe are of course the Southern Right Whales (pictures).
Around 500 of them hang around in the Golfs around Peninsula Valdes between
August and December and you can even see them from the beaches. They hang
around at the surface, play with their young, sail (up to 20 minutes) and do
a lot of breaching! 
Here you can find some pictures of Valdivia and our
department in General Lagos street. We have a great view over the Rio
Valdivia (which has many names depending on the region). It is really
silent, the center is in 10 minutes walking distance and we always have
good air (even in winter when everyone is heating with wood and the air in
town can become quite smoggy). Sea lions and rowers are passing in front of
the window, and we even have our own dock.
This is the biological station where we spend half
of our time. It is situated about a day trip south of Valdivia in the
fjord region and is built at the foot of a 2000 m high mountain. It can only
be reached by boat from Hornopiren. The small village Huinay has 6 more
houses, a school and of course, no road. There are several possibilities
to hike, e.g. to the top of the high mountain on a rough trek Reinhard has
cut through the dense forrest, to old Alerce trees and to geysirs. There is a hot river on the
other side of the fjord and hot springs in Cahuelmo fjord.
These pictures give an overview over Chile, which is an extremely
diverse and long country. Transferred to Europe, it would spread from
Scandinavia to North Africa. In North Chile you can find the extremely dry Atacama
desert and the high Altiplano and in the South islands, fjords and glaciers surrounded by temperate rain forests. At most places the ocean is
only 100 to 200 km away from the highest peaks of the Andes, in the fjord
region the Andes drop directly into the sea. Some of the pictures are taken in
South Argentina, too...(marked with Arg).
Here you can find some underwater pictures taken in the
Comao fjord. A virtual trip will gradually lead you from the surface down
to depths of 40 m. 