Shipboard
Dec 3 - 7
We had a good night’s sleep with no rush to get up early the next morning. I still was up by 6:30am and snuck down to the lounge so as not to wake Lyn to try and catch up with some of this blog. After yet another full on breakfast with everything available including omelets made to order I took a walk around town. It seemed that every other shop is a trekking/hiking/gear/clothes store catering to the tourist trade, and most tourists are here for the outdoors. I was told that Puerto Natales is the biggest tourist center in Chile and it seems this could be so. When tourist interest declines the town is hurting. The wind was way down, so much that it was pleasant to sit on a park bench to take in the view; that is pleasant until the swarming gnats almost blocked the view. I guess there is a reason for the ubiquitous wind. I did go into a tourist shop and bought a T-shirt. All mine were dirty so rather than washing just buy another. I also bought a cool gaucho beret, like the gauchos of yesterday were wearing. It seems very practical. Like a baseball cap it can be used to shade your eyes from the sun. It can be pulled down for warmth and if spread out can work as a small umbrella for light rain. After yet another full lunch at the hotel (eating way too much for the amount of exercise) we loaded up for the drive to Punta Arenas. On each of our bus rides we would see hearts of guanaco grazing in the grasses both near and far from the road.
It seems we were a little late getting to Punta Arenas because we sped right by a replica of one of Magellan's ship that we could see about 1/2 km away from the bus. It would have been really interesting to have even five minutes up close to get a sense of its size; tiny I assume, certainly compared with the Ventus Australis that we boarded about 6pm. We did have about an hour and half to roam around downtown Ponte Arenas, the main square of which is quite lovely. After sitting in a bus for the afternoon I was ready for some walking so took a tour around town including to the top of the local hill and around the waterfront. It seems this place is pretty big, maybe over 100,000 people and the center of commercial activity of Chilean Patagonia. There was a nice sign saying the distance from here to almost everywhere.
Sign at top of hill in Punta Arenas
Shipboard Day-1
It seems that while we will be on the ship for four nights it will be for only three days because we get on late in the day of day-1 and get off early in the morning after night four. The ship/boat is very fancy; big cabins, lovely lounges, lots of public space in and outside and a very accomplished, multilingual crew and guides. Of course the meals are over the top, at least three courses and three choices of entrees. The ship didn’t seem big enough to need tugs to set sail but two of them pulled and pushed us away from the dock. The main lounge had an open bar available from 11am to midnight. Yikes! Our OAT group of 20 was only a part of the 120 folks on the ship that has room in high season for 220 passengers. It seemed all passengers speak either Spanish or English even though about two dozen countries were represented. All announcement were in Spanish and English and activities were divided by language as well.
Day-2
I got a good night’s sleep even though the cabin seemed a bit warm. There has been a running joke going because Lyn and I didn’t find the temperature controls in our first hotel in Buenas Aires until one of our tour members, Frank mentioned where it was at our last breakfast there. Since then we continue to have temperature issues and keep asking Frank to help out. Indeed, on board we didn’t realize we had a control until Frank mentioned it the next morning. Duh.
For our first “expedition” we were given the choice of a medium difficult hike with a long zodiac ride, mud, steep sections, with no time for photos to the top of a moraine or, alternatively a lovely stroll through a forest with lots to see and interesting explanations. Of course I chose the moraine hike while almost all other OAT members chose the forest. Uhmm? Again we were warned about wearing layers and to be prepared for wind and rain. With breakfast starting at 8am and my hike leaving at 8:45 it seemed a bit rushed but no problem. 14 of us life-jacketed participants were crammed into a zodiac for the 1/2 hour ride to a beach where we left our life jackets. Indeed, it was a challenging hike. Not being interested in taking a fall I was quite careful and thus one of the slowest of the group. I did get to take a few photos and to stop long enough to shed some of the layers to prevent sweating too much on the climb. I even removed my cool gauchos hat. At the top our guide, Valentina asked if I had not had on a barret because she thought I was a local. At which one of my tour members said “not local but Loco”. It was an interesting hike but maybe the forest one was better and certainly was easier. What with rain coming and going and some wind temperature control was an issue. The trail was often through narrow low bushes making trekking poles awkward but other times they were really critical. There were several places where fixed ropes were place to help with particularly steep and slippery sections. Even though I made it without mishap it was a bit of an adventure and I was pretty tired by the end. A highlight was having a condor soar over us back and forth a few times. Being a carrion eater I was sure he was eyeing me as a likely next meal. It was raining fairly hard for the 1/2 hour zodiac ride back to the ship and to add more water they wash your feet off with a hose. My Hokka runners were only a bit wet before the wash, but the wash was the end of semi-dry feet.
Near the top during a lull in the rain
After a great salad for lunch and a brief rest we were off again in zodiacs to visit some Magellan penguins up close. Besides those flightless birds cooling it along the shore line we were treated to dolphins playing around the zodiacs and kuas and cormorants flying back and forth and soaring over us providing quite a show. While getting quite close to the birds we stayed in the zodiacs so as to not disturb the environment of this crowded place. These three birds share the fairly small Tuckers Island of but there is a pecking order with penguin eggs and chicks being at the bottom. There were no chicks yet hatched but the parents could be seen going and coming from their shared duty of incubating one to two eggs per nest. Again Valentina was a font of knowledge about all these critters and their relationships.
Mostly juveniles cooling it along the shore while adults march up into their nests in the grasses above
Before dinner there was a very interesting lecture on the indigenous people of Patagonia that included the stories of first contact with Europeans, some good, many bad. Of the five different groups of indigenous people no full blooded members are left, the last having died around 2004. At dinner we were warned that we would probably be awakened about 4:30am by increased ship motion. At this point we would be at the western end of the Magellan Straights and exposed to Pacific swells before turning south and sneaking behind some coastal islands. The warning emphasized not to get out of bed without holding on to things. Passengers had been injured in the past by not taking care. Indeed I woke up shortly before 5am from the banging of a cabinet door that would not stay closed. I got up carefully staggering around and holding on to things to secure it and to use the head. I figured I would not go back to sleep but did and the ship motions immediately were calm again.
Day-3
After breakfast we were treated to a summary lecture of the tectonics, geology and glaciology of Patagonia. Again Valentina did a very fine job covering this whole complex topic in just an hour. Of course many details were skimmed over but it was thorough enough for a lay person to get a good sense of how and why this land is so special. I could find no fault in her explanations and learned some specifics that I had not known before. We were then briefed on our choices for the afternoon expeditions to see the Pia glacier. I chose the middle level one; reported to be not quite as strenuous as yesterday’s but still with some challenges. There were two different periods we got tours of the engine room (needed ear plugs and hard hats) and to the “bridge of command” (not sure what other bridge there might have been). Arriving near the glacier’s bay we saw our ship’s twin sister who was doing the reverse route, so we are about half way.
Our sister ship from within the Pia Glaciers bay.
The hike turned out to be somewhat challenging in any case, but not from the difficulty of the terrain. Most people chose this route and thus is was very very crowded, which meant lots of stopping and waiting. For me this makes walking on uneven and/or slippery terrain more difficult. Once moving my balance and coordination are OK, but after standing a bit the first few steps seem awkward. Thus stop and go is frustrating. The total distance was much less than the day before and the views were good but pretty much the same everywhere. I found the line up of people waiting to re-board the zodiacs to be reminiscent of waddling penguins in red life jackets rather than in tuxedoes.
“Penguins” lining up to re-board the zodiacs.
It looked to me the Pia glacier has been near in steady state for a while since vegetation was fairly mature not far from the terminus. However, it may be receding slowly taking it’s toe out of the tide water for part of each year. It would be interesting to see a sequence of older photos of its terminus. Coming and going the zodiacs had to maneuver through and around smallish chunks of floating ice that had obviously come from calving events, though we saw no calving in the two hours we were near.
After returning most people gathered in the large upper-deck bar and lounge to hang out for the views of “Glacier Alley” off the port side. The bar was open. I ordered a Calefate Sour and got one that almost filled a large wine glass. Oh dear! If I drank it all I would be wasted. However, it turned out to be the same amount of pisco as a regular one, just with more Calefate juice so I survived with only a mild buzz. As we “navigated” (this term is used by the crew to mean “sailed” or “cruised”) by different valleys, each with a different looking glacier in it the crew would serve little bites of something representative of the name of each glacier. Each one was named for a European country; thus little sausages for Germany, a glass of Champagne for France, little pizzas for Italy, etc. What with the drinks and nibbles one was not interested in dinner after we were finished with the glaciers, but it was served anyway. While it was called “The Captains Dinner” I could find nothing special about it. Maybe the Captain had cooked it.
Day-4
Over night we “navigated” the rest of the Beagle Channel before turning south just to the east of a set of islands leading to Cape Horn. We were up quite early for coffee and then to disembark at 6:45 for a landing and walk to the light house. Unfortunately the wind and seas were too high for a safe landing so this excursion was cancelled. I spent quite a while, some times out on the open deck, watching the many albatross sail back and forth over the waves either looking for food or maybe just having fun. They almost never flap their wings but somehow stay aloft in large graceful swoops banking one way and dipping down to skim just above the waves before soaring back up for another banked turn. Their flight seems virtually effortless. I never saw one actual get something from the sea so I am not sure what it was all about other than to entertain me.
albatross
The crew explained in some detail why we could not go ashore but made more of the fact we had actually gotten to Cape Horn, 54 degrees south…. The end of the earth, blah blah and blah wow! (other than Antartica). Big deal. The area around here hosts over 400 sunken ships with over 10,000 sailor’s lives lost. We trusted the captain not to add to that tally. Heading back north a short film was shown of the Shackelton expedition of 1914-1916. The successful rescue of his men left on Elephant Island after he, with five others sailed a small boat to South Georgia was organized by the Chilean Navy from Punta Arenas.
After another meal (a rather good Ensalata Australis) there was a break until we anchored in Waluia Bay for our last “expedition”. There were again three options, difficult, medium and easy. I again chose difficult though was worried it might be really hard for me. After talking to one of the guides who had seen me struggling some on the first hike she said that it was longer and higher but not as difficult terrain. I am OK with that so did it. The first thing that went wrong was our zodiac ran out of gas on the way to the beach so we had to get pushed the last km by another zodiac. It seemed like an auspicious beginning to me so “should I change and do an easier hike?” Nah, what more could go wrong. After the first km or so at a fast pace and convinced that I could keep up we stopped to shed a layer or two. Stuffing my rain jacket in my dry bag I quickly grabbed my poles and followed the group that had just left. Whoa! Where is my phone/camera. It was not in my pants pocket where I usually keep it. Oh, right in my rain jacket pocket where I can better get to it. I looked and whew, it was there. Dodged that one. Hustling along I caught up just when the trail got steep, but not as difficult as the first day. The views at the lookout stop were fine and at the summit they were really good looking back over the bay with our ship in the distance.
The rest of the hike was uneventful other than I was slower going down some steep parts than most others. I kept saying to my self, “I may be blind, clumsy and slow but at least I am not old…. Err too old.”
Starting back down from the hikeBefore our last dinner there was a round of drinks in the bar and a lottery to win the ship’s “jack”, a small flag it flew on this cruise and then an auction for the chart used to plot our course. This went for $350 bought as a present by the wife for her husband’s birthday. We all had to sing for him then. Dinner was even more extravagant than the previous ones, which were over the top. During the desert one of the ship’s waiters sang a series of songs, from traditional Chilean pop to 1950s rock n roll. He had a really good voice and lots of passion for a sappy love song in English. His final number was a dance tune and he got lots of us to dance around the whole dining room in a line. It all seemed very “cruise ship” type entertainment, but, wait this was a cruise ship. I enjoyed it but enough was enough. We ended up docking in Ushuaia about midnight. The docking noises woke me up so I had to checkout what was going on in case they needed my help. It progressed rather slowly so I went back to bed and soon asleep.
The following morning was pack, breakfast and then disembark for a city tour. So ends the cruise part of the trip. It has been really fine, if maybe too much food. The meals were generally very good so it was hard not to eat and keep on eating and then look at the menu for the next meal. The ship’s crew including the guides were almost too friendly and helpful. They are hard working and somehow keep being friendly to us ducks all the time. Impressive.
What with poor IP connections at the “fin del mondo” this is being posted a couple of days after finishing.
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