The long journey south - sailing the Patagonian fjords

Day 60 -3rd February

We travelled by bus to the port town of Puerto Montt, where we were to board the Navimag Ferry that would take us through the Patagonian Fjords four days to Puerto Natales. We checked in and then spent several hours wandering around the town waiting for the ferry to be readied. There's not a lot to do in Puerto Montt and I was glad we decided to stay in nearby Puerto Varas instead of here. We walked around the market at Angelmo to a great fish market. If we weren't getting on the ferry we'd have been very tempted to buy some fish or shellfish for dinner. After a lunch for empanadas, we boarded the ship, although we didn't leave port for another hour or so. We had tried to get the cheapest berths aboard, literally a bunk in the wall of the corridors with a curtain for privacy, but they were all booked so we had to have the next version up. Ours was a 4-berth cabin with 2 bunks on either side and a small gap in between. The beds were comfortable, with fresh towels, privacy curtains and hughe lockers for our bags. We were sharing our cabin with a young German couple, who seemed very nice, if not the most talkative. By the kind of coincidence that I'm now getting used to, Birte, the German girl we know from Pucon and who we spent yesterday with, was in the cabin next door! After wandering round the ship and getting acquainted with our new home, we all assembled in the cafeteria for a briefing from the Captain. The it was time for dinner, which was much nicer than we'd anticipated, followed by beer and playing cards with our cabin-mates, Birte and her cabin-mates, an American called Lindsey (another friend of Birte's) and an Argentinian calle Diego, who we picked up at dinner.

Navimag ferry at Puerto Montt

Hooray!  We're off...

In my bunk

Day 61 - 4th February

We were woken up for breakfast at 8:00 and ate more food than we would usually manage, then settled in to a strenuous morning reading our books, playing games and gazing at the scenery passing by the windows.  The weather was similar to yesterday, hazy and cloudy with strong winds on deck and occasional rain, which meant that although we went out frequently to get a better look at the fjords as we passed, we also spent a lot of time inside relaxing in the bar or cafeteria.  Although the visibility wasn't great, the ship got close enough to land on both sides for us still to get some spectacular views. 

Bueatiful fjords in the mist

Lunchtime

Days on the boat revolve around the three meals, which neatly truncate your reading and sightseeing time into short chunks.  After lunch we went to a lecture on Patagonian fauna, focusing mainly on birds.  The lecture was given by the excitable Percival, the ship's tour guide, who took us enthusiastically through photos of birds and marine wildlife, punctuated with anecdotes.  Our lecture was stopped several times by announcements from the captain that whales had been sighted off the ship, at which point we all rushed outside to get a glimpse.  Having never seen whales in the wild before it was a spine-tingling experience to watch a small group of minky whales diving off the side of the ship.  Unfortunately the wind and their speed made taking a photo impossible, so you're just going to have to believe me.  We also saw penguins and a dolphin, as well as majestic albatrosses gliding alongside us.  That evening we crossed out of the safety of the Fjords into the Golfo de Penas, on the open ocean.  Having worked on the ferries and spent lots of time on the sea, neither Jon nor I are accustomed to getting sea-sick, but these waves were something else!  After an ill-advised glass of wine, which I think negated the positive impact of my travel sickness medication, I gave up and headed to bed.  A handy dose of Diazepam, bought in Bolivia, ensured I slept soundly through the night.  Apparently others on board were not so lucky...

Windy whale watching

Getting rough...

Day 62 - 5th February

By the time we got up for breakfast we were safely back inside the fjords and had left the rough seas behind us.  The morning was full of stories of how everyone had survived the night and some seemed to have fared better than others.  Apparently those in the bunks in the corridors had their sleep disturbed by queasy passengers running to the toilet all night!  Today's weather was  a little better, with sunny spells and brief showers all day.  We spent a good part of the day playing cards with our new friends, in between strolls on deck to appreciate the ever spectacular scenery.  We sailed through many narrow channels, affording great close-up views of the hills on either side, and saw yet more fantastic wildlife - seals, more birds and another shoal of whales - as well as the wreck of a ship which ran aground the 1970s and now serves as a warning to other sailors. Today's highlight was a visit to a glacier (another first for me!).  We were due to visit the Peo 11 glacier, but as visibility was poor, the captain decided to re-route the ship to visit another one, the Iceberg glacier, to which we could get closer.  My first experience of a glacier left me spellbound, the size and scale were immense and the incredible blue colour of the ice was mesmerising.  We spent about half an hour sailing close to the ice face, breathing in the pure icy air and marvelling at the beauty of the landscape.  What a day!  

Wrecked ship Capitan Leonidas

Iceberg Glacier

Enjoying the glacier

Close-up of the ice

Tonight's lecture was on glaciation, a bit of a recap of all those geography lessons, and very enjoyable.  After the lecture we left our friends in the bar playing cards and found a quiet spot to read and look at our photos for a few hours.  When we returned to the bar we found that we had missed the bingo and that our friend Lindsey had won, which seemed to entail getting free drinks and having to dance in front of everyone!  By the time we got to the bar, she and most of the other passengers were very drunk and a South American disco was in full swing.  We drank the rest of our bottle of wine and joined them for a boogie to Chilean music until the early hours of the morning, although when we left the hard-core were still going strong.

Day 63 - 6th February

We were both spared hangovers from last night's party, having gone to bed before many of the others, who weren't so lucky.  Lindsey and Diego, who both stayed til the end were feeling a little the worse for wear.  Sadly all the heavy food served on the boat had started to disagree with me and I decided to skip breakfast in favour of a long lie-in.  As we were now quite a long way south it was decidedly chilly on deck and everyone wrapped up warm in as many layers as they could find.  Today saw the most spectacular scenery, as we sailed past snow-capped mountains on either side.  We also passed through the narrowest point of our journey, the White Narrow, with just 8m clearance on each side of the ship.  We all spent more time on deck today, enjoying the spectacular scenery before our journey came to an end.  

Mountains in the White Narrow

Getting close to the rocks

Mountains near Puerto Natales

We reached our destination, the port town of Puerto Natales, at around 3:00pm, but the famous Patagonian wind was too strong for us to dock so we spent another hour waiting in the bay.  Eventually we were able to dock and had to bid a sad farewell to our trusty ship Evangalista, and also to our new-found friends, most of whom were heading off to various hostels with plans to trek the nearby Torres del Paine at different times.  It was a bit hairy climbing down the stairs on the ship with our backpacks in the howling wind, but somehow we all made it to dry land and walked through the town to our hostels.  I had an amazing time on the Navimag ferry and am so glad we found out about this trip.  It may have cost a little more than we had budgeted but it was well and truly worth the money and a truly sensational way to enter Patagonia.