Advertisement
Published: September 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Na het uitchecken uit guesthouse Canales del Sur, rijden we naar Puerto Montt; de laatste 25 km van dit stuk in ieder geval.
Eerst maar eens inchecken voor de boot en dan de auto inleveren. Om de tijd te doden, lopen we Puerto Montt een beetje door en gaan we in een lokaal cafeetje zitten voor een broodje en koffie. Na de nodige souvenirwinkeltjes zijn we dan toch weer aangekomen bij de boot, waar we de laatste 2 uur in de wachtruimte blijven zitten.
Dan mogen we rond half 3 aan boord gaan. We hebben hut 117, met uitzicht op zee…
De komende 3,5 dagen gaan we op dit schip varen van Puerto Montt naar Puerto Natales, een afstand van zo’n 1500 km langs de Patagonische fjorden.
Na 2 uur vertraging vertrekken we om 6 uur ’s avonds, om langs het eiland Chiloe te varen. We worden getrakteerd op een schitterende zonsondergang met een dieporanje-gekleurde lucht boven Puerto Montt. Een mooi begin van deze reis.
Lonely planet:
Puerto Montt: population 160.000
Puerto Montt is 1020 km south of Santiago via the Panamericana, which skirts the northern edge of the city as it continues on to Chiloe.
Boat:
Puerto
Haven van Puerto Montt
Op de achtergrond Navimag Montt is the main departure port for Patagonia. At the Terminal de Transbordadores you can find ticket offices and waiting lounges for both Navimag (
www.navimag.com) and Transmarchilay. Both companies are primarily commercial transporters, so don’t expect a lot of cruise-ship comforts.
The most popular trip is Navimag’s M/N Magallanes, which sails on Monday to Puerto Natales (and back on Friday). It is a popular three-night journey through Chile’s fjords.
The Navimag experience:
the Good, the Bad & the Ugly Back in the prehistoric Patagonian travel days of the 1980s and early ‘90s, travellers had to beg and swindle just to stow away on the rusty cargo freighters that plied the waters between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales. No regular passenger ferries were installed as tourism to the region increased, but the Navimag shipping company caught on and decided to dedicate a section of their boats to passenger transportation. So, these days, you can have that same experience of stowing away on a freighter - packed with 18-wheelers, drunken truck drivers and cattle - but you can make a reservation online and they will charge you hundreds of dollars for your bunk.
The Navimag is not a cruise. If you
are looking for a cruise, check out Skorpios and ready your credit card. The Navimag is a quirky travel experience that comes with the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. If you like to have different experiences and are adventurous it just might be the highlight of your trip.
The Good: The boat takes you through days of uninhabited fjords, close encounters with glaciers and views of surreal orange sunsets over the Pacific. It passes through Aisen’s maze of narrow channels, navigates the Angostura Inglesa (a passage so confined that the ship seems to graze the shoreline on both sides) and stops at the impossibly remote Puerto Eden, a small fishing port and the last outpost of the region’s Qawashqar Indians. To the south, the channels become narrower, the snowy peaks get closer and hundreds of waterfalls tumble from glacial valleys to the water’s edge.
The Bad: If the weather is poor, your views are limited and you will spend much of your time watching movies or drinking in the dining area. If the weather is worse, you can spend a day or so pitching back and forth on rough seas and fighting to hold down your lunch. It the
weather is worse than that your trip can be delayed (for days) prior to departure and you can even be delayed en route if the Golfo de Penas (on the open Pacific) it too rough to cross.
In the winter the boat can have less than a dozen passengers, which can be fine or can really detract from the social experience. In the heart of summer, it is often so full that people are packed on top of each other and must dine in shifts.
The Ugly: During the winter, when there are fewer passengers and more cargo, hundreds of head of cattle are kept on the top and middle decks in open-top trucks. They are packed together so tightly that not all animals can keep their feet on the ground and after a day or two the stench of 300 cattle can be tough on your nose - especially if you are already seasick.
However, as you should know by now, no valuable travel experience comes without a dose of hardship. If you have the time, a trip on the Navimag will not only change the way that you see and understand Chilean Patagonia, it will also add depth
to your entire trip.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.189s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 15; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0965s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb