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Published: January 19th 2009
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Hello from Steph. I'm making a guest appearance at writing the blog, so it may not be up to the usual standards!
We have had a really good time since leaving Ushuaia, and have made up for all the overnight bus trips and dodgy hostels with a bit of comfort, starting with the Mare Australis. This was a 3 day cruise to Punta Arenas in Chile, on a smallish boat with 132 passengers from 19 countries including just 7 from the UK. The ship was very luxurious and we had a huge cabin, with beds rather than bunks, and a big window to watch the scenery go by. It was “all inclusive” and the food was excellent and plentiful. Oh and there was plenty of wine and cocktails, although we only really tried these out on the last night, to celebrate our table companion's birthday!. Incidentally, Coral has apparently changed her birthday, as this was announced to everyone at dinner on the first night. We think this may have been because someone had written her date of birth as 1-7 instead of 13-7, so they wanted to give her cake on January 7th. Sadly we had to decline, after a
good laugh.
Once we left Ushuaia, we entered Chile which owns all the islands in this area. We travelled along the Magellan Straits, with a small detour to Cape Horn. On my way back from Antarctica, we had tried to approach Cape Horn but had to turn away a couple of miles out, as the Chilean authorities won't allow Argentinian based boats to get too close. That day had very poor visibility anyway, but we had reasonable weather this time, and were allowed to land via Zodiacs. We were able to briefly visit the lighthouse which is manned by a Chilean naval family for 1 year at a time, before the wind got too strong and we had to return to the boat. We then went back to land at Wulara on Isla Navarina to visit a small museum about the indigenous people, and explore the coastline with a guide from the boat who spoke excellent English.
The second day was spent cruising the straits, although we stopped to visit a couple of small glaciers, and on the last day we were up before breakfast to visit the Magellanic Penguin colony at Isla Magdelena. Again this visit was
cut short by the weather, and although the colony was probably more extensive, we saw much more of the penguins and their chicks at Punta Tombo.
Arriving at Punta Arenas, we entered Chile properly, so all the bags were searched on arrival - the first time we have had this. We were met at the boat and driven off to the Ecocamp at Torres del Paine national park. This is a very large and beautiful area, very popular with walkers, and there are a number of clearly marked paths and refugios to stay at. Not sure what they are like, but I haven't heard any bad reports. The scenery is a mixture of the granite massif with several peaks and fingers, and huge lakes. Having swallowed the same guidebook as Coral, I can say that this is an area of ancient volcanic and glacial activity, and that Paine means blue. There is also a mass of wildlife in the area, and we saw guanacos (like llamas), flamingos, hares, rheas (like ostriches) foxes, horses wandering free when not taking people on treks, colourful birds and condors (more of them later).
We stayed in domes, which seemed to be made
torres del paine
..the fingers on the left are the torres of thick green plastic over a metal frame with a hessian lining. The beds were very comfortable and had huge heavy quilts and blankets. As we were in a “dome suite” we also had a wood burning stove, which brought out the pyromaniac in me, and a comfortable en-suite with shower. Although it was supposed to be a compost toilet, you would not have known this, and it was more like a toilet on a boat. There were two restaurant domes, and a chill out dome, and again plenty of good food and drink. Each morning a vast array of food was laid out so that you could make up your own sandwiches to take for lunch.
We were very lucky as our 'group' consisted 4 only people - us plus Mary and Joe from Long Island New York - with our guide Charley. On the first full day of our stay, we pretended to be hikers and Charley took us for about 5 miles around the area and Lake Nordenskjold. We felt this justified tucking into the tea and cake waiting on our return to the domes! We were again blessed with good weather, and both came away
hello....
Guanaco in Torres del Paine park with a bit of sunburn. The location of the domes meant we had a great view of the towers, and there was also a fantastic sunset, with the most amazing colours. Next day we recovered from the exertion by having a full day trip by minibus to Lake Grey on the other side of the park, with a boat trip to see the Grey glacier. There is a huge ice-field in this part of Chile and Argentina, (3rd biggest after Antarctica and Greenland!) so many glaciers coming down to huge lakes.
We stopped a couple times to take in the fantastic views and Charley said she might know where we would see condors. She took us to a place where 8 birds were perched on the edge of the cliff. We spent about 30 minutes there, edging closer and closer, hoping we weren't disturbing them, but also wanting to see them fly. Beautiful, but also ugly birds, making no sound except the occasional sneeze. There were a mixture of adults and youngsters, and eventually a couple flew away. In the end they probably decided they had had enough of us, and all flew off to another ledge, but we
managed to get some fantastic photos, and a memorable experience.
From there we caught the bus back to Argentina (more passport stamps) and to El Calafate, a tourist town in the Los Glacieres national park. We took the bus to visit the glacier Perito Moreno, which is huge, and often shown in books about Argentina. It is one of the few which are not receding. Again a boat trip to view the glacier, but also walkways to see it up close, as pieces fall off from time to time. We saw a few little pieces fall, but the most amazing thing was the continuous rumbling as the ice moves and cracks, as though there were a huge storm all around.
Back to Puerto Natales in Chile (more stamps and bag checking), on probably the first day we have had with bad weather, so we didn't mind being on the bus, and the scenery in this area of Chile and Argentina is a bit boring - open and grassy steppe. Our next boat, the Navimag Ferry was delayed by a couple of hours, so we spent the afternoon in a slightly English café, greedily devouring the Sunday Times from
December 28th and numerous cups of tea, to get out of the rain. We also caught up with 2 ladies from the US (Cathy and Carol) who we met in the B&B in Ushuaia and who travelled on the Mare Australis with us.
So I am writing this from our cabin on the Navimag, and will send it when we reach land. We booked a cabin that we would not have to share with anyone, so we have a basic cabin with bunks, and an en suite. Other cabins have 4, 8 or 22 people in them. It turns out that we are actually travelling first class, which means that we also have a separate dining room which we share with the ship's officers, we have a waitress rather than self service, and that our food is different and probably better. The Navimag is a roll on roll off cargo ferry and often transports cattle or horses, so there is sometimes a smell of manure outside. Its pretty basic, but the views as we wind our way through the islands on Chile's west coast are absolutely stunning.
We are happy to finally reach Puerto Montt and catch a
minivan to Puerto Varas on Lake Llanqihue, but more of that next time. Thanks for all the e-mails and messages - we love hearing from you.
Steph and Coral
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Clare Irwin
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Glaciers and hot tea
Steph. Coral will be proud, another lovely blog. I continue to enjoy hearing all about the fantastic scenery and wildlife, but also about the day to day things you do and what you are enjoying about it all. We missed you at The Boat Show and meal :( It must be NEARLY time to go to Galapagos ? Clare xx PS Dave's mum is also enjoying the blog.