Isla Damas, Home of the Pingüinos

From La Serena, there's a nice little trip up north to a humboldt penguin reserve. The first week of January, my dad and I got ourselves up early one morning to take this trip. After an hour and a half bus ride, we took a boat to two islands: Isla Choros and Isla Damas. We circled around Isla Choros for a half hour or so, taking a good look at some big 'ol sea lions, flocks of penguins standing and looking around (and not doing much), and some caves. Then, we landed on the smaller Isla Damas.

Isla Damas is essentially untouched wilderness (besides a small ship-guiding light, a path, and a small wooden dock). They only allow up to 50 people on the island at a time (according to our quite hilarious tour guide, any more and the island would sink). The island falls in Chile's transition zone (along with La Serena), which means it's between the dry desert and wetter valleys to the south. This means that there's really cool desert plant life with a lot more variability than you would see in a desert.


Welcome to Isla Damas!


Isla Damas & the surrounding area is full of cool plant life. To show us that the region was wetter than you'd think, our tour guide pulled up one of these plants and rung the crap out of it, squeezing out a bunch of red, sticky juice.


Some penguins on a rock. Couldn't get much closer our they would fly away....just kidding.


Of course, I had to climb up to the top of the highest peak on the island.


More cool plants.

#### More Isla Damas Photos!! ####

My dad just sent a CD of pictures he took on his trip down here, so I'll add a few of them here!


We also saw a bunch of elephant seals on the boat trip. They're smelly, lazy, enormous, and ridiculously good swimmers.


Ah....the seals' life.....


When you don't do anything all day, you can spend some of the time posing for gringo tourists.


Lots of penguins standing there and looking around.


More penguins standing and looking around....I think all they do is stand there and look around. I never saw a single penguin do anything but stand around!


Me and my dad on Isla Damas. The clouds hung around our whole time there, but it was pleasant. The one bummer is that we didn't see any dolphins. I've talked to people who say that there can be dozens of dolphins that come and play around the boat.



The plant life on Isla Damas was quite impressive, and was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. Although I have to admit I'm a huge desert-plant lover, especially flowering desert plants!