Only One day left of South America

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My last update left us on our way to Valdivia, a small town by the river. There was a colourful fish market right by the river where a family of sealions get fed with the scraps. We also went to the Kunstmann German brewery for a few beers & I had Sauerkraut for dinner. Wonderful. There was a bierfest in town, where we watched horse jumping & bizarrely enough a competition of men cutting logs with chainsaws!

After only 2 nights we caught a bus to Pueto Montt sea port where we stayed in a hostal called Suize. The owner was half swiss like me. We had to come to Puerto Montt to catch a boat to take us down further south. The boat was called Navimag & was an old cargo ship which now takes passengers. We stayed in cosy bunk beds. See picture. It was actually better than we imagined. All food was included, which we ate in a self service cafeteria & there was a very nice bar & lovely outdoor sun decks.

The guides told us we were very lucky with the weather. It was unusually hot. The views were amazing on the way down. We passed through the fjords & saw snow peaked mountains. We were also lucky enough to see a whale from a distance squirting water through its blow hole, a couple of schools of dolphins, several seals & a sea otter.

We stopped at a town on the way called Puerto Eden where only 180 people live in the middle of nowhere. The weather had deteriorated by then & we had rain & low cloud. We went ashore for a walk round the town & the weather got worse. We spent the afternoon on the bridge as we approached icebergs & the third biggest glacier in South America. It was amazing. We also passed the smallest channel which was only 80 metres wide. It was great seeing it from the bridge.

That night we played bingo & Miles had to get up & dance with a lady. (This seems to becoming a habit), He won a bottle of beer.

After 3 nights aboard we docked at Puerto Natales. It was raining hard & really cold. A bit of a shock to the system. Sun tan fading fast. We booked a day trip to Torres Del Paine National Park for the following day & luckily enough we woke up to sun shine, but strong winds.

Torres Del Paine was stunning. Lots of beautiful blue lakes, water falls & snow peaked mountains. We also saw some large ice bergs & another glacier. All in all a wonderful day.

We are now in Punta Arenas for 3 nights, staying in a really nice hostal. We are off to see a penguin colony this afternoon & fly to New Zealand tomorrow. No more spanish speaking. Hooray. South America has been wonderful, but now cant wait for english speaking & some normal food.

Thats it for now. Loads of love as always xx

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Photos

Navimag
Our ´room´

Navimag
On the Bridge