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Published: March 19th 2010
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I give up! I can't upload photos on stupid Bolivian computers! I'll publish the next few blogs without photos until I can actually upload them. Then after that there won't be any photos anyway, cos some helpful fellow nicked off with my camera.
The Navimag I´m not on a boat any more. I´m very behind with blogs. The Navimag is a cargo ferry that travels up and down the Patagonian channels between Puerto Natales and Puerto Montt. The roads aren´t so great in that region so the cargo ferry is a good option for transporting cattle and tractors. There were some cows on our boat, rammed into a few open-top containers. Lucky them. Apparently there was also a horse and later a foal, but I didn´t see them. They must have had first class cabins.
The boat also takes up to 300 passengers. There were just under 200 on our trip, which was good as there isn´t masses of communal space. Apparently there are 21 different classes of bed. I had booked the lowest class - bed-in-a-corridor. However, when I went to check in with Mark from my hostel, I got upgraded to a 4-bunk cabin with separate
private bathroom. I think the man behind the counter was trying to spare me from Mark´s jokes.
I had a great time on the boat because I already knew a bunch of people from the hostel in Puerto Natales and also the hostel in Punta Arenas. We also made new friends on the boat, of course. There wasn´t much to do except look at the scenery (totally stunning, especially on the first day, when we had gorgeous weather), spot dolphins, play cards, chat and have a drink.
We were so so lucky with the weather: it was warm and sunny on the first day, which is when the scenery is most impressive. We were sitting out on deck, drinking wine, pisco sours, gin and tonics, beers, etc, when the boat drew near a glaciar. It was bright white but also blue. A dinghy left the boat to chip off a block of ice from one of the icebergs to stock up the bar. Wonderful! After an evening game of Pass The Pigs, drinking Gato Negro wine from a box, we were invited outside to count the stars and share a bottle of wine with a group from Spain.
For some reason, the two chaps took a liking to me and they have put hundreds of photos of me on facebook. It wasn´t lechy, more like they wanted me as their mascot or something.
On the second day, we crossed the Gulf of Penas which is normally a horribly choppy crossing as it´s where the channels peter out and the Pacific steps in. Luckily for us, it was the calmest crossing they´d seen in a couple of years. I took a Sea Legs tablet just in case and I was totally fine. First time ever I´ve not been sick on a boat journey! The luck-o-meter went crazy that afternoon when the captain announced dolphins on the starboard side. Port side. Starboard side. There were tons of them! We also saw a couple of Orcas, or killer whales, but only their fins and spouts, and only from a distance. That evening we played the usual card games and a new one for me called spoons. Remind me to tell you about spoons.
Being on the Navimag started to feel like being at camp: I found myself walking around with my toothbrush and toothpaste in my coat pocket all
day, or nipping back to the bunk (tent) to pick up a pack of cards, seeing people I knew all over the place, leaving stuff lying around (and it was still there later on), writing down people´s names and email addresses in notebooks on the last day and feeling sad to leave such a comfortable environment! I think some people took it too far and didn´t wash either.
The last day was a bit of a wash-out, weatherwise, but in the evening the crew hosted a fiesta. First off, we had bingo, with the trick proviso that if they heard you utter the word "bingo" you had to get up and dance for everyone else. A disco followed. Our group must have been juiced up by this time because we chose to all get up and dance to...YMCA. Some of us danced until we were shoved out of the bar at 3am. Actually, what happened was, we shredded the gnar on the dancefloor. That´s West Coast slang I learnt from my pals Ryan and Molly.
The Navimag was the reason I went to Chile in the first place, and probably Argentina too. I don´t regret it!
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Jess
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i'm in thornbury!
man oh man, what adventures you are having. ahoy me hearties, lookout captain emma's about!