Puerto Edén Cruise- Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales

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25.III.
Eike and I took a bus from Bariloche to Puerto Montt in Chile early in the morning. It would have been a short hop accross the border but of course there was plenty of faffing to be done at border control. And so we arrived in Puerto Montt slap bang in the middle of siesta on a Sunday- not a great deal to do as you can imagine. The next morning we were up at six o'clock to try and get tickets for the Navimag cruise down the coast of Chile to Puerto Natales. If that seems a bit early, that´s because it was. Apparently you have to put your clocks back when you go from Argentina to Chile. Oops. The boat got held up in bad weather further down the coast so we didn’t end up boarding till eleven that night, so we spent the whole day kicking our heals in town, taking two hours to drink our drinks in every café and bar we went into! I think we left behind quite a few unsatisfied waitresses, if you know what I mean.
The cruise itself was a real experience. The word ‘cruise’ is slightly misleading as the boat is nothing more than a converted freight ship- we were packed like sardines into our cabins and the canteen was pretty basic. And there was nothing to do. So money well spent then! Days pretty much went as follows….
- Get up at 7.30 ish for breakfast. Eat breakfast.
- Sleep. Wait for lunch.
- Eat lunch. Sleep. Wait for dinner.
- Eat dinner. Booze a bit and play cards.
- Go to bed.
Having said that it was a really cool trip-loads of amazing scenery, including a close up view of Glaciar Pio XI, one of the only advancing glaciars in the world. Absolutely stunning. We also had to cross the Golfo de Penas on the second day, which was not for the faint hearted- I popped a sea sickness pill so was fine, but there were plenty of people who weren’t. Eating and moving about was a comedy experience, with people and trays of food sliding all over the place. On the third day, we took a short excursión off the boat to Puerto Edén, a small fishing village alter which our boat was named. The remaining people of the indiginous tribes of Chilean Patagonia live there- was interesting, but it felt a bit wierd just walking around in front of peoples´ houses.
We arrived in Puerto natales on 30.III at 9.00 in the morning but had to hang around until two-ish because of bad weather before disembarking.

It was an interesting few days, with not only some absolutely stunning scenery, but also some welcome time to just sit around chatting, reading and watching some quality S.American films (not to mention ‘Bingo Patagonia’ on the last night……….’The BEST bingo in Patagonia……it’s the only bingo in Patagonia! Ha ha ha!’ Ah…..jokes.)

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