We visited Chile from March 5-23, 2020. Although the country is not wider then approximately 175km, it is over
4300km long. Since we prefer not to fly after entering, we had to choose which part to visit. Eventually we choose
to visit the central part, mainly because that is where 9 out of the 10 endemic birdspecies of Chile occur.
Also some must-see areas in other parts of the country are to high up in the Andes for visiting with a 2-year old.
In our first week we visited some coastal areas near Algarrobo and Valparaíso, including the La Campana
National Park, ending up in the beautiful Maipo Valley southeast of Santiago. The second week we travelled south
visiting Altos de Licray National Park, Ensenada and Puerto Montt ending up on Chiloé Island
as our most southern point of interest.

Then the troubles started. Due to a possible worldwide lockdown in response to the Corona pandemic (COVID-19),
we were forced to get home as soon as possible. Our last week was spend only with driving the long way back to
Santiago, calling and mailing with the Dutch Embassy, our and other airline companies and offcourse the homefront,
which was of indispensable help to getting back home. Our return flight, only confirmed the same morning,
was eventually on March 23, 6 days prior to our original date (March 29).

The first lag of our trip was quite a succes, seeing 149 species of birds (4 introduced species not included),
among which 8 out of the possible 9 endemic species (Chilean Tinamou missing) and highlights including
4 species of Albatross, 8 species of Tapaculo and the iconic Andean Condor. Other animal groups were scarce although
we did see some nice mammals (like 2 species of dolphin, 2 species of fox, South American Sea Lion and Southern Pudu).

All photos in this gallery are also included in the “Photo Archive” gallery on the main page.