In the world of expedition cruising, we are sometimes fortunate to find a place that has never before been visited by the traveling public. Today the Caledonian Star made such a chance discovery just 20 miles off the southern coast of Brazil. Ilha de Alcatrazes has been administered by the Brazilian navy since 1940 and used as a gunnery range since that time. Consequently, it has been strictly off limits to all visitation. However, by a strange twist of irony, the navy allowed our ship to take a zodiac cruise around what is certainly one of the most strikingly beautiful and important seabird nesting areas in the South Atlantic. (The irony is that a local environmental organization recently protested the presence of the gunnery range, prompting the navy to extend an invitation to our guests). We of course jumped at the opportunity to see what was here and how fortunate for Caledonian Star guests! The granite rocks are as impressive as those seen in Rio de Janeiro but are graced by forests of wild palm trees. About 5000 nesting pairs of frigate birds were observed here and thousands of them soared over our zodiacs as we gasped in sheer delight. The island is famous to biologists as the home of an endemic species (found nowhere else on earth) of fer-de-lance, one of the pit viper reptiles. (The Discovery Channel was here 3 weeks ago to film the fer-de-lance). Other birds included brown boobies, caracara, and kisskidie. It all had a kind of "Jurassic Park" feel to it - the wild palms, the pterosaur-like frigates flying above, the strange towering rocks disappearing into the clouds. It has been a red-letter day out here in the South Atlantic!