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Hello all,
We arrived in Puerto Montt, Chile this morning and are now in Castro on the island of Chiloe'. We will be in the Lakes Region (Chile and Argentina) for a week and a half or two weeks.
How was Navimag? It was the best cruise of the PataGOnia! Then again, it was the only cruise of the Patagonia. One of the cruise directors, Zilda, was very energetic and always emphasizing that everything was the best of the PataGOnia. The Navimag cruise was very interesting. For those of you that have been on real cruises, it was nothing like that. This was a ferry, where carrying passengers is secondary to cargo, but it was still a lot of fun and very memorable.
The ship had about 200 passengers. It was a diverse group of people, from backpackers like us to older retirees, and everybody in-between, though very few Chileans. The'passengers are restricted to a rather small area of the ship. We shared a 4 person cabin with 2 German backpackers, both of whom had studied Spanish in Argentina. There is just one large common area for people to congregate which is a combination cafeteria, dining room, pub,
sitting area, movie theater, disco and bingo parlor. Of course, one could always go outside (on deck) as well.
The ship took 3 days to go about 1000 miles. It was very pretty sailing through the archipelago of Chilean Patagonia. It is similar to sailing from Seattle to Alaska along the inland passage. We had very nice weather the first two days, cloudy and rainy on the third. For one night, we had to go out to open sea. Fortunately, the seas were very nice to us and the swells were only about 2 meters high, though there were gusts of 50 knots. We just went to bed early and only a few other people got sick.
So as I was saying, this is not your ordinary cruise. First, we were on the same level as the cattle. We counted at least 15 truck beds full of cattle. The cattle were packed into the truck beds like sardines. It was very uncomfortable for them. There was not enough room for them to move around much so they just bumped into each other continuously for several days.
Us people were also packed in like sardines. The one common
area available is not big enough for everyone to fit in at once. It was usually pretty crowded and stuffy, but we got to know many of the people very well due to the close proximity. We hung out a lot with Gerry, Ursula, and their friends from Texas. They are fun-loving old fogies who always had a big supply of cheap boxed wine and snacks. We also hung out with a group of 4 Aussies among others.
Basically, the routine of the day is wake up, eat way too much at breakfast, sit and read or wander around the ship, eat way too much at lunch, sit and read or wander around the ship, eat way too much at dinner, and then wait for the wonderful activities for the night. Ok, I am exaggerating just slightly about the daily activities, but you get the idea. There were activities such movies, educational talks about the region, and even a shore excursion in Puerto Eden. The bridge was also open during the day and I spent many hours making sure the Captain was going the right direction.
The evening entertainment was first class. We had the luxury of having
White Narrows
This is the narrowest part of the trip. The gap is only about 80 meters. The ship is about 20 meters wide and over 100 meters long. the best ship´s mechanic on board. During the day, he was Mr. Fix-It and we would see him running around the ship working on everything. At night, Cristobal was a first class lounge act. He played his Casio keyboard and sang hits such as ¨Guantanamera¨, ¨Gloria¨, ¨Killing Me Softly¨, and our personal favorite, ¨Another Brick in the Wall, Part II¨. All were sung with Chilean accent and a disco beat. Following this excitement on the first night, was Bingo. Not just any Bingo, but the best Bingo in the PataGOnia! Only on a ship like ours would Bingo be the highlight of the evening. But we will admit it was a lot of fun. We also had dancing at night (except for the night we were in open sea) and there are rumours flying around Chile that Ryan danced. But we can neither confirm nor deny this.
This morning we disembarked the ship and went to the island of Chiloe. We have just wandered around Castro and talked at length with our innkeeper about the area.
That is it for now.
Ryan and Ana
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