Isla de los Estados isn’t far from Ushuaia… as the crow flies…. 100 miles… something drivable on a highway in and hour and a half. Yet between Ushauaia and Isla del los estados, and island that sits just off the eastern toe of Tierra del Fuego, to cross those 100 miles one must plan or battle the winds of the Southern Ocean and as one nears the island, strong rip currents that have sent more than one boat aground…. Thousands since the discovery of the route around Cape Horn.
Yet here we are on the Southern coast of Isla de los estados. Hunkered down in a cove as we wait for the current winds to pass. We got to this cove two days ago and ran lines ashore to hold us in place in preparation for the winds. Once secure it was time to look for otters. Would they be in this bay….York Bay? Alejandro jumped in the zodiac to find out. The first afternoon they found strong evidence of otters and enough poop to satisfy them for the day. A first outing ended when one wave got the zodiac wet… as well as the otter scientists aboard. The winds picked up the rest of the afternoon so the rest of the investigating would wait until the next day.
The next day (yesterday) arrived… blue skies at 6:30 but by the time breakfast arrived it was sleeting and grey. But it was good enough for the otter team to head out. They checked the rest of the coast… more poop and then right where a stream entered the bay.. they placed a camera where they found a high concentration of poop.
Then the magic started. As a few of us were on shore a group of four was gathered on the starboard Bow of ocean tramp. As the zodiac came to pick us up we learned that they were looking at an otter in the water… the supposedly shy southern river otter. As we loaded the group of four moved to the port side. We headed that direction and then cut the engine. The next three hours we watched the otter play… eat… get out of the water… get back in the water… swim through the kelp. We swapped in and out who was on the zodiac.
We later learned it all started when Alejandro’s student was on the deck. He saw the otter and dropped to his knees and may or may not have had a tear in his eye… his first time (and Ale’s) and the rest of us to see a southern river otter.
And that this otter decided to go on with life, despite us being there… was so cool.
And that brings us to today… wind and more wind and overall grey.. a great day to sort through the hundreds of photos and videos (gigabytes) of our incredible encounter.
