An Operaria proposal for Turismos Orca · draft

Turismos Orca

09:30 · 12:00 · 14:30

Tell us how many and which day:
Bottlenose dolphins leaping in front of a Turismos Orca boat, under the coastal fog.

The whales don't pass through. They stay to feed.

Chañaral de Aceituno · Humboldt Penguin National Reserve · Atacama Region, Chile

3 DEPARTURES A DAY · 09:30 · 12:00 · 14:30 · 2 HOURS

Already got a date?

The cove of Chañaral de Aceituno seen from the air, with the boats in the inlet and the village houses behind. 02 · caleta-ticket

THE TICKET · THE COVE

The trip starts on land.

Before you get on the boat there's a walk along the shoreline: the moored boats, the smell of cold sea, the desert hills dropping into the water. You buy the ticket right there, looking at the same sea you'll be out on in a while.

It's two hours. We sail three times a day, and your place is confirmed the same day, depending on how the sea is running.

  • 1st departure09:30 – 11:30
  • 2nd departure12:00 – 14:00
  • 3rd departure14:30 – 16:30
  • Where to buy[PENDING]

2 HOURS · CHECK AVAILABILITY ON WHATSAPP

We'll hold your place:

The Turismos Orca 703 with passengers in life jackets, and a whale's fin surfacing alongside. 03 · lancha-zarpa

ON BOARD

We leave with everything ready.

  1. 01A life jacket for every person, on before we cast off.
  2. 02Travel insurance included in the ticket.
  3. 03A guide on board who knows what fin you're looking at.
  4. 04Transfer to and from the harbour, and water.

The boat is open and it goes out full: that's what makes everyone look the same way when somebody shouts. The guide keeps telling you what turns up —which species, why it's here, how you recognise it— and not as a loose fact: it's the same two hours.

The sea decides. If the day is bad, we tell you before you leave the house.

The skipper of Turismos Orca at the wheel, in an orange jacket with the sea of the reserve behind him. 04 · guia-timon
AT THE WHEEL, HEADING FOR ISLA CHAÑARAL

UNDER THE WATER

Here the cold water rises, and the food rises with it.

  1. The Humboldt Current travels cold along the bottom.
  2. It hits the shelf around the islands and rises.
  3. And the oxygen and the krill rise with it.
Seen from a drone: four whales swimming below the surface with a Turismos Orca boat alongside them. 14 · dron-manada
THE POD · FROM THE DRONE
  • −5 M · the surface
  • −60 M · the bottom, where the current is born
  • −5 M · and the krill rises with you

That's all there is to it. There's no other explanation and none is needed: an archipelago of eight islands with the shelf at exactly the right depth, and water pushing up what was below. Everything else —the whales, the dolphins, the seven thousand penguin nests— comes after the food.

“It's common to see the patches they form, and the whales feeding on them.”

MARITZA SEPÚLVEDA · MARINE BIOLOGIST · UNIVERSIDAD DE VALPARAÍSO

TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH

A fin whale feeding at the surface, mouth open and the throat pleats spread wide. 16 · fin-comiendo
A Turismos Orca boat full of passengers and, in the foreground, a fin whale surfacing alongside it. 08 · encuentro-lancha

THE ENCOUNTER

The whales don't pass through.

Chañaral de Aceituno is a key feeding ground for three species. It isn't a corridor they travel along: it's where they eat.

OF 6 TAGGED WHALES, 5 STAYED · UNIVERSIDAD DE VALPARAÍSO

  • Fin whale

    The second largest animal on the planet. A long dark grey body and a small dorsal fin set far back: that's why you see it a good while after the blow.

    100 M AWAY

  • Humpback whale

    You can't mistake it: the very long white pectoral fins, out of the water.

    100 M AWAY

  • Blue whale

    The largest animal that has ever lived. It arrives at the peak of summer, between mid-January and mid-February.

    300 M AWAY

We get as close as they let us and not a metre closer. A hundred metres to the humpback and the fin; three hundred to the blue; fifty to the dolphins. If the animal changes its behaviour, we leave.

LEY 20.293 AND THE CHILEAN WHALE-WATCHING REGULATIONS · CONAF AND SERNAPESCA

How we find them

  1. 01We go to the places where they have gathered for years. It isn't a random route: they are the same stretches of the archipelago, season after season.
  2. 02We keep an open marine band radio with the other tour boats in the cove. If one of them sees a blow, we all know.
  3. 03Sometimes the word comes from the shore: someone spots them from land and we head straight for them, to look closely at what tells each species apart.

Every sighting leaves a photographic record, a position and a note on how the animal behaved. That's how we know which ones come back.

A fin whale on its side at the surface, the baleen plates of its palate in view. 17 · fin-lance
FIN WHALE · THE LUNGE ON ITS SIDE
A humpback whale breaching, its long white pectoral fin spread wide. 18 · jorobada-salto
HUMPBACK · THE WHITE PECTORAL FIN
The huge bluish back of a blue whale surfacing, with the island behind it. 19 · azul-lomo
BLUE WHALE · THE PEAK OF SUMMER
Three bottlenose dolphins leaping clear of the water in the open sea. 09 · delfines

ALL YEAR ROUND

The dolphins have been here longer than we have.

1987

  1. They were first reported off the island in 1987.
  2. They are residents: they don't migrate, they live here.
  3. They are the only resident population of this species described by science in Chile.

50–55 ANIMALS · BETWEEN ISLA CHAÑARAL AND ISLA CHOROS

We know them. A group of fifty-odd bottlenose dolphins that never leaves, and that comes out to the bow when it feels like coming out. It's the part of the trip that doesn't depend on the season.

And they're not alone.

A Humboldt penguin up close, the base of its bill pink and its white chest speckled. 10 · pinguino

Humboldt penguin

The black band across the chest is the giveaway. The colony on Isla Chañaral is the largest in the reserve.

≈7,000 PAIRS ON ISLA CHAÑARAL

A group of South American sea lions on the rocks of the island. 13 · lobos-marinos

South American sea lion

You hear the colony before you see it.

ALL YEAR ROUND

A marine otter on a dark rock along the shore, with a wave breaking behind it. 15 · chungungo

Marine otter (chungungo)

The smallest otter in the world. It lives in the rocks along the shore and you need a good eye to spot it.

MARINE OTTER · 50 M AWAY

A black-browed albatross on the water, with the dark patch over its eye and its pink bill. 21 · albatros

Black-browed albatross

It lives offshore and crosses on the glide, without a wingbeat. The dark patch over the eye is the giveaway.

OCEANIC BIRD · OFFSHORE

A red-billed tropicbird flying over the sea, its wings barred and its bill blazing. 22 · ave-del-tropico

Red-billed tropicbird

The blazing bill and two very long tail streamers. It turns up one at a time, always over blue water.

AT LEAST 14 SEABIRD SPECIES HERE

There are also Peruvian diving petrels, which dive using their wings as if they were flying underwater, and Peruvian boobies, which drop onto the water headfirst: some 18,000 pairs in the archipelago. And gulls, and cormorants.

HUMBOLDT PENGUIN NATIONAL RESERVE · ISLAS CHAÑARAL, CHOROS AND DAMAS · SINCE 1990

WHEN TO COME

There's always somebody out there.

  1. November to April, whales.
  2. Between 15 January and 15 February is when you see most of them. And it's when the blue whale arrives.
  3. The rest of the year, the residents.

If you come in summer, you come for the whales, and you're very likely to see them. If you come in winter, you come for the dolphins, the penguins and the islands, and the sea is calmer. Both are good trips; they are not the same trip.

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec

Dolphins, penguins, marine otters and sea lions all twelve months

Fin and humpback whales November to April

Blue whale 15 January – 15 February

Greatest recorded diversity December to March

SEASON · NOV–APR, ACCORDING TO TURISMOS ORCA · SCIENTIFIC RECORD DEC–APR

Tell us which month and we'll tell you what's out there:

A whale's tail raised above the water, with the Atacama Desert coastline behind it. 12 · costa-cola

THE FAMILY · SINCE 2012

Fifteen seasons on the same stretch of sea.

  1. 01Family business · since 2012
  2. 02Chañaral de Aceituno · Freirina · Atacama
  3. 033 boats of our own, all Orca
  4. 04Orca 703 · 24 passengers — Adventure and Travels · 32 each
  5. 05We also work with other boats from the cove
  6. 06Current SERNATUR registration · maritime transport

We started in 2012 with one boat. Today we have three, all of them Orca, and when the cove fills up we work with others from here, belonging to other families. We are residents in the same way the dolphins are: this isn't the season, it's home.

Orca is the name of the boat. Whales, dolphins and penguins pass through here; orcas are rare.

“The magic of the ocean gives us wonderful moments, of an incredible beauty and joy.”

LUIS GONZÁLEZ · SKIPPER

TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH

A Turismos Orca boat with passengers in life jackets and, alongside, a whale's tail coming out of the water. 20 · lancha-cola
THE BOAT FULL, AND THE TAIL ALONGSIDE

THEY'VE ALREADY BEEN OUT

We didn't write this part.

[PENDING] · RATING AND NUMBER OF REVIEWS

These are public reviews written by people who got on the boat. Each one comes with a name, a date and a link to where it lives.

If it was written in another language, it stays in that language, with the translation underneath.

  • Luis González, "el Lucho", a cargo de Turismo Orca me dice "qué día tuviste, jorobada, muchas fin, una azul, delfines"

    Luis González, “el Lucho”, who runs Turismo Orca, tells me: “what a day you got — a humpback, plenty of fins, a blue one, dolphins”Translated from Spanish

    FELIPE HOWARD · LADERA SUR · OCTOBER 2021

  • Binoculares en mano, cámaras fotográficas listas, no sabemos a donde apuntar, vemos soplidos a lo lejos en todas las direcciones

    Binoculars in hand, cameras ready, we don't know where to point: we can see blows far off in every directionTranslated from Spanish

    FELIPE HOWARD · LADERA SUR · OCTOBER 2021

  • Cuando la ballena azul nos muestra su cola es porque su inmersión es más profunda, entonces se produce un silencio, una calma y se genera una expectación

    When the blue whale shows us its tail it is because the dive is a deep one; then a silence falls, a stillness, and the waiting beginsTranslated from Spanish

    FELIPE HOWARD · LADERA SUR · OCTOBER 2021

  • Juan nos comentó que este año las ballenas habían llegado antes, en octubre

    Juan told us that this year the whales had arrived early, in OctoberTranslated from Spanish

    ROMINA BEVILACQUA · LADERA SUR · DECEMBER 2018

  • Algo que me gustó de esta agencia es que su lancha es la única que tiene un toldo para protegerse del sol.

    One thing I liked about this company is that their boat is the only one with an awning to keep the sun off.Translated from Spanish

    CATA CONTRERAS · POR QUÉ ME GUSTA VIAJAR · JANUARY 2022

  • A review from Google or TripAdvisor goes here, written by a visitor from abroad. We don't have it yet, and we don't invent it.

    [PENDING]

These are accounts published by travel media and blogs, not platform reviews.

Read them all on Google → [PENDING]

Convinced?

BEFORE YOU GET ON

Before you get on.

What if I don't see anything?

It can happen and we're not going to hide it from you: the sea can't be controlled. What we do know is that the dolphins are residents and are here all year, that the penguin colony doesn't move off the island, and that from November to April the whales are here eating, not passing through. Before you sail we tell you how the day is looking.

Am I going to get seasick?

Depends on the day and on you. The trip is short —two hours— and it hugs the coast and the islands. If you get carsick, take a tablet an hour before and sit in the middle of the boat.

[PENDING] — whether they recommend anything in particular.

Can children come?

Yes. The trip is suitable for all ages, and children up to three years old go free.

[PENDING] — whether there are child-size life jackets on board.

Do we land on the island?

No: the Reserve has been a protected area since 1990 and landing is not allowed. The penguins, the sea lions and the whales are watched from the boat, which is where you see them best.

What should I bring?

A windbreaker or a jacket: however hard the sun is hitting, the sea here is cold and there's wind. Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses. Your camera, with a strap. We bring the water.

What happens if the sea closes in?

We tell you as soon as we know. If the trip is called off because of bad sea conditions, we refund 100% of what you paid.

How much does it cost?

CLP 22,000 per person. It's a single flat fare —the same for everyone— and children up to three years old go free. The price can change if fuel goes up; we confirm it with you the same day.

Still got one?

The cove of Chañaral de Aceituno from the air, with the beach and the boats in the foreground. 02 · caleta (cierre)

BOOKING

Write to us and we'll tell you how the sea is.

  1. 01From Vallenar, 49 km south on the Ruta 5, as far as Domeyko.
  2. 02At Domeyko, west on the Ruta C-500: 78 km of gravel road in good condition, about an hour and forty.
  3. 03132 km west of Vallenar. You pass Carrizalillo and, five kilometres later, you see the sea.

FROM LA SERENA · [PENDING]

We're in the cove of Chañaral de Aceituno, in the commune of Freirina, Atacama Region. We sail at 09:30, at 12:00 and at 14:30, and we confirm your place the same day.

LAS JAIVAS S/N · CALETA CHAÑARAL DE ACEITUNO · FREIRINA

09:30 · 12:00 · 14:30 · 2 HOURS

What you need to know

CLP 22,000 per person

ONE FLAT FARE · CHILDREN UP TO 3 GO FREE

  • PriceThe same fare for everyone. It can change if fuel goes up.
  • AgesAll of them. Children up to three years old go free.
  • BoatsTurismo Orca 703, 24 passengers. Adventure and Travels, 32 each.
  • If the sea closes inTrip called off because of bad sea conditions: we refund 100%.
Tell us how many and which day — I'm coming for the whales — Ask us how the sea is — See the tours and prices —

Prefer Instagram? send us a DM

Or by email: write to us here