Advertisement
Published: January 9th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The Navimag Ferry
Pity you can´t smell the stench of cattle, gives it such a different atmosphere. NAVIMAG: (noun). 1. Ferry that transports passengers on a three day tour of the Patagonian Channels from Puerto Montt to Puerta Natales or vice versa. 2. Chilean torture technique (rumoured to have been developed by Pinochet) to drive people crazy by subjecting them to extreme periods of boredom, cow dung and cramped conditions. It is rumoured that it began running as a tourist venture several years ago after a bet between two naval officers one of whom quipped "I bet if we painted this thing red, charged a lot of money for it and told everyone it was great fun, tourists would flock to use it". The other officer, who couldn't believe people would be so stupid, took up the bet and the rest is history. It should be noted that the same officer sold his shares in Microsoft in 1983 stating that "the future is in Amstrad Computers, not this upstart Microsoft company".
If you haven't guessed, we've just got off the Navimag Ferry after three days curising up the Patagonian Channels. I had images of spending three days kicking back on the ferry enjoying the changing landscapes as we slowly wound our way back up to Puerto Montt.
Narrowest Point
80 metres across and quite a current. I even expected to be a bit bored along the way as being confined on a small boat isn't my idea of heaven, but the reality was just worse than I could imagine.
There were several trucks jammed with distressed cows on board right below our dormitories, and boy did they stink, especially when you went out on deck, but that was OK because most of the three days it was too cold and wet to want to go out on deck. We even had one brief hail storm.
This therefore left us with three exciting options. Sit in the restaurant and talk/read, sit in the bar and talk/read, or lie in our bunks and talk/read. So we spent three days moving between these three locations, and we talked and read.
In fact most of our waking time was spent waiting for the next meal to come around or for the next exciting activity to occur. I will say that the meals were much better than I expected, and Christie was pleased that she didn't have to live solely on eggs and rice.
It was also quite enjoyable watching the changing landscape of the channels (would
be a magnificent place to kayak if you could arrange food drops), we saw a glacier from about a kilometre away, and plenty of sea and bird life, we even stopped in the small town of Puerto Eden for an hour on the second day and went for a wander around ... basically I think my gripe is that there were perhaps enough things to do to make a really pleasant one day cruise ... which basically left us with two days with nothing to do.
We were so exhilirated to get off this morning we were practically running down the deck to be first off the boat. Unfortunately we both left our bags on board with our raincoats on and, of course, the heavens opened up just as we stepped of the boat.. We proceeeded to sit around for an hour waiting for our bags to be carried off so we could gointo town without getting too drenched. Finally as we stepped out into the rain protected by our coats ... the rain stopped and we sweltered all morning.
We went straight to Lan Chile to see if we could bring our flights forward, but no luck
Reading, reading, reading ...
Notice the blood shot eyes from too much reading. so we're now stuck in Chile for another fourteen days with pretty much no money and nothing left we really want to do ... at least nothing that we can afford to do ... we'd both love to fly up to Ecuador and visit the Gallepegos islands, or spend 10 days kayaking in the fjords south of here ... anyone with a spare $5000 they want to donate to our travelling fund??? I'd promise to try and write entertaining travelblogs with messages such as "This travelblog was brought to you by {INSERT NAME HERE}".
Maybe Forestry Tasmania needs me to go and investigate some pulp mills or plantations in the area ... I only require three star accomodation, three meals a day and a rental vehicle and I'm all yours?? Somebody help me here!
The only highlight of the past few days was walking into the hostel here in Puerta Varas to find a Christmas package from Christie's parents containing two packets of chocolate raspberries and a picture of Jazzy. All our problems were forgotten at once. It's amazing how the little things in life can bring so much pleasure ... I don't suppose you want to express
Typical Views
Fairly typiocal views in the Southern Patagonian Channel. post some more of those chocolate raspberries over do you, let's just say they didn't last very long as we're not so good at budgetting over here.
Guess it's back on the bikes tomorrow to enjoy another Chilean torture technique: the Patagonian Headwind.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.124s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0661s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Shaun Field
non-member comment
Cash already committed
Hey John as much as I love reading you blog I am afraid that I have already committed my charity donations to the 'Flippers Fire Fund'. Some clown decided it was a good idea to set fire to Flippers - my favourite fish'n'chip punt. Luckily it only burnt the inside, so it is still afloat and will probably have re-opened by the time you get back. However, I may be able to scrape some silver together for you. Have you got a western union close?