Patagonia: a land of fiords, ice fields, lakes and soaring snow-capped peaks

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Tuesday 20^th January 2015



Did we say on Monday, whilst in northern Patagonia, “scenery doesn´t get much better than this”? We did? Well we were wrong. Today it just did! The Aysen region of central Patagonia is a wonderland of fiords, glaciers, mountains and lakes. It is majestic scenery, similar to the South Island of New Zealand, with emerald green rivers and sparkling waterfalls, beneath craggy snow-capped granite peaks. It is exhausting! It causes a beauty-overload to the eyes; the poor brain has a problem absorbing so much splendour all in one day! Thank goodness that tomorrow is another “at sea” day, to allow our over-stimulated little grey cells to recover, before reaching the Amalia Glacier on Thursday!



Our giant but silent big ship, slipped into the entrance to the Aysen Fiords at dawn, 6 a.m. and then took two hours to reach the end of it and the town of Chacabucu: 931 nautical miles from Valparaiso. “Town” is a slightly grand term for this port, which boasts just 2,000 inhabitants, who nearly all work in the salmon industry. It has a hotel, two banks, a restaurant (whose Wi-Fi was down, so we couldn´t get on line) two small shops, a church and houses. That´s it! It sits at the top of the fiord, surrounded by mountains and glaciers and the original families were paid by the government to settle there. Still today, the housing is heavily subsidised by the Chilean government, far more than anywhere else in the country. Why are Chacabucans so favoured? Well, they do have one third of Chile´s water here in Aysen, so they think that might have something to do with it! Culturally, the people identify with Argentina more than Chile, despite being Chileans, and this is reflected in their customs and cuisine. The only land link, is a mountain road across the Andes to Argentina. There is no land link with the rest of Chile. The only way to get to Chacabucu is to fly (expensively) to its small airfield, or come on a cruise ship or as a passenger on a cargo ship. We actually got quotes for the latter, before we booked the cruise, but the berths on cargo ships were even more expensive than the cruise (which isn´t cheap). So, budget backpackers, if you want to visit the Aysen region, and it is so worth visiting, you will need to get a long-distance bus in from Argentina. There is one other way, via one road going north from Chacabuco. A seven hour drive up this road, will get the traveller to another port in another fiord where it is possible to get a ferry up the coast. Ferries do not come down to Chacabucu. So, it is pretty cut off and exclusive, and we feel truly fortunate that we are here in this very special part of the world.



After disembarking, we went by coach to the Rio Simpson National Park. The River Simpson is a brown trout river, rated as one of the best fly-fishing rivers in the world. We didn´t try fly fishing, just enjoyed the scenery! It was a clear sunny day, cold early on but very warm later (so we swapped our woolly hats for sunhats half way through the morning). The summer season here is very short, a matter of weeks, so we were most fortunate today with the weather.



When all passengers were back on board and the lifeboats back on their rigs, we weighed anchor and headed out of the Aysen fiords, setting various courses through the many routes within the Darwin Channel, so that we would eventually head out back to the Pacific. The sun set just before 9.45 p.m. whilst we were still in the Darwin Channel and its many spectacular fiords, islands and mountain peaks. It is quite a feat of navigation; this huge ship, gliding on green waters, through these narrow fiords, through deep wooded gorges, topped with snowy peaks. Truly awesome! When we awake tomorrow, all of this splendour will be gone and what shall we see? We´ll see the sea! Before long, however, this stunning coast will be ours once more; we are set to reach the Amalia early on Thursday morning. We shall pray to the Sun God of the Incas in the meantime!



Wednesday 21^st January 2015



We decided to have a bit of a decadent day today, so before going to bed last night, we ordered breakfast in bed, to start the day off. Having had the alarm clock at 6 a.m. for two days running, to see the sunrise and the scenery, and having seen the red and gold glow of the sunset on the horizon still at 1 a.m. (it never totally sets now that we are so far south), we slept like logs. This ship is so quiet and smooth, probably the smoothest we have been on. We were woken by the steward, with a gentle tap on our cabin door, just after 8 a.m. bearing a splendid breakfast tray, coffee, juice, croissants, pastries, rolls, English marmalade and also a cheese, bacon and egg muffin for John (oink! Oink!). We opened the curtains, the sun came streaming in, sat in our huge king-sized bed with our splendid breakfast and thought “This is the life!” A tad different to some of the hostels we have stayed in. A real luxury break!



At 9.30 a.m. we went to a lecture about the area, given by a most knowledgeable and humorous elderly Spanish gentleman. He was a wonderful speaker and has an obvious passion for Chile. By 10.30 a.m. we noticed that there was land again on the port side, more mountains, more rugged peaks and volcanic cones, but all a bit far away for photographs. The coastline of Chile stretches for 4,800 kilometres and there are over 2,000 volcanoes scattered down the Andes, and fifty five of them are active. Since the total population of Chile is only 17 million people, there is a lot of wilderness and space. We followed the coastline all day, so we didn’t just see the sea after all! It was a wonderfully relaxing day, apart from a strenuous little session in the gym, due to pangs of guilt about the gourmet dining! We watched a vegetable carving demonstration by one of the chefs which was pretty impressive, and apart from that and at mealtimes of course, we simply stood at the rail; the scenery on this voyage really is too good to miss.



Tomorrow could be even more spectacular, when we reach the Amalia. During the night, the ship will navigate through the Trinidad Channel, the Conception Channel, the Pitt Channel and then the Heusser Pass towards the glacier, a dead end, where she will turn 180 degrees to get back out to sea again. So we shall pray to the Sun God again: he has been listening pretty well so far!

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