The Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt may be a bit off the beaten path for many Chile itineraries, but it proves well worth the effort of going.
Visiting the Choros Islands was one of our highlights of Chile. It was a bit of a punt, though, and we didn’t know whether we’d make it as boats don’t always run, and there is a limit to the number of people allowed to visit this national reserve each day. So here’s everything about our day trip to make it easier to visit the Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt.
We were staying in La Serena and had picked up a hire car there. We set the GPS to the administration of the national park, the Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt. The drive takes around 1.5 hours in total. The first 50 minutes is on the ruta 5 highway – a simple, quiet drive with some stunning views of the coastline as the road winds up the hills.
The last 45 minutes is on the smaller D-116 road, but by no means a dirt track. For these 45 minutes we only passed a few other cars, and the route takes you between the hills with fields of cacti on both sides. If you’re lucky you can spot families of guanaco roaming about (we saw more late morning than when we returned) and South American foxes (we saw these only on the way back, so in the early evening).
About 10 minutes before the end of the drive you go through the single village of Choros Bajos. There’s a couple of restaurants/shops and a few cabanas but it didn’t look like there were any hotels that you might be able to book in advance if you wanted to stay overnight. You drive straight through the village and then there’s another 10 minutes of sandy landscapes until you reach Punta de Choros. Only the last couple of minutes, within the village itself, is on a sandy road where you need to take it a bit slower. When we arrived we saw that there was a car park and a lady in a high-viz jacket so we thought we were going to have to pay. But she told us that we could buy tour tickets from the little hut and park for free. The car park looked pretty safe – always people around – and there are some toilets here too (300 pesos). Note – there are also (free) toilets on one of the islands and when we returned from our boat trip (at around 4.30pm) the ones on the mainland were already locked up.
Once you’ve parked the car you buy a ticket for the boat tour at the right-hand window of the hut. It costs 10,000 peso per person, and it’s cash only. We arrived at about 12.30pm and we were the first to sign up for the next boat. They only take a boat out if there are at least 10 passengers, and if they don’t fill it (by about 2pm when they stop sending out the boats) they return your money. We decided to wait and sure enough, some more cars came in. In total I think we waited about 40 minutes. After buying the tour ticket you also have to buy a ticket for the reserve (at the left window). It would be far too efficient to combine this into one transaction 🙂 It costs 7000 pesos per person for non-Chileans, and you need to keep hold of your ticket because they check it when you get onto one of the islands.
Once we had 9 people signed up, the skipper started handing out lifejackets and we got into the boat. Then the lady who we thought was the parking attendant turned into our tour guide, hopped aboard the boat and we set off. About 2 minutes later we got called back to shore as 3 more people had turned up, so this 10 people rule seems quite flexible. Finally we were off and the first 30 minutes was motoring through open waters past Isla Gaviota with not a lot to see (unfortunately no dolphins – the chances are 50/50 the tour guide told us).
Then we reached Isla Choros and the boat slows down/stops to allow you to spot sea lions basking on rocks, cormorants pruning themselves, and the main event – the Humboldt penguins. They’re really quite tiny, and well camouflaged against the black and white rocks behind them so it takes a while before you spot them. My expectations were pretty low for seeing them. I thought it would be a case of ‘if you’re lucky you might spot a Humboldt’, but we saw lots, both standing/jumping about on rocks close to the water’s edge, and higher up on the cliffs.
After going along the eastern coast of this island, the boat takes you around to Isla Damas where you get out and you have an hour to explore. There are a couple of park rangers to take your ticket as you get off the boat. One spotted that we weren’t Chilean and asked us if we speak Spanish. After saying, ‘si, un poco’ he asked us to wait and then each ranger did a different introduction for the two groups – the Chileans and us, where he spoke slowly and clearly telling us a bit about the island and things not to do (smoke, swim, drop litter etc). He also explained that there were two paths we could walk on, one longer than the other. So we of course opted for the longer, 40-minute one and did a trail around the southern headland.
The trail is clearly marked and there are boards of information (in English too) telling you about the reserve. I liked the one where they explained that the population of Humboldt penguins has been growing steadily since they booted beachgoers and campers off the island and turned it into a nature reserve. The numbers are still very low compared to what they used to be, but it’s heading in the right direction. After our hour was up we got back on the boat and it was another 30 minutes (at a slower pace, still hoping to spot dolphins…) back to the mainland. In total we were on the trip for about 3 hours. The guide spoke only Spanish (she managed to translate pinguino into penguin for us – er, thanks) but she did ask if we understood roughly what she was saying. She gave quite a lot of facts, but you don’t need to be able to understand any Spanish to do this trip – just enjoy spotting the wildlife.
Some tips –
- If you can sit on the left-hand side of the boat to not have people in front of you when you go along the east coast of Isla Choros. They do kind of tell you where to sit to balance the weight but someone from each group should get the front-row seat.
- Bring sun cream – in about 20 minutes of not much sun I went completely red.
- Bring a jumper/coat as it’s quite cold on the water even in summer.
- Wear hiking shoes for the walk around the island.
- Bring binoculars or a camera with a good zoom lens. You can see the penguins with the naked eye but as mentioned, they are small, and it’s nice to get a closer look as the boat doesn’t go right up to them (which is a good thing!)
- Bring cash!! Otherwise it’s a non-starter.