Day 82 January 30th 2007, City Lights - Puerto Montt to Santiago, 1016km

Its hard to believe that mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and lakes can loose their appeal but after almost 2 months in Patagonia the bright lights of the city were calling us. So much in fact that after the 1 1/2 hour flight from Puerto Monttt we jumped straight on a bus from Santiago to Valparaiso on the coast, only stopping for about 20 mins in Santiago.

Pretty much everyone we spoke to who had visited Santiago described it as a concrete jungle so we decided to spend some time at the coast instead. Valparaiso is a port town to the West (obviously) of Santiago, about 1 1/2 hours by bus.

I wasn't quite prepared for the size of this place expecting a small little port town, a beach and a some pretty cafes. Instead we were greeted by a bustling port town and Naval base with buildings covering the hills above the town as far as the eye could see, home to over 250,000 of the city's inhabitants.

The attraction of this place is immediately obvious, the building's on the surrounding mountains, mainly houses and restaurant's are all painted in a vast array of different colors, with their streets resembling more of a maze of ally ways and steep roads. Some of which have their own lifts called funiculars.

A view from the bottom of one of the funiculars

The city lends itself to some easy exploring, whilst walking through the streets in the hills there is something interesting on every corner. The more we walked it soon became apparent that the city could be described as one huge open air art gallery with hidden treasures everywhere you look. For example I was surprised to find that one of the many foliage covered fountains had tropical fish swimming in its basin.

Shelley by some of the citys fountains

We also spent some time exploring the port area of the city with its Admiral house, a large memorial to a Naval War hero called Prat, many of the streets in Chile are named after him. Prats first name is Arturo and as a result there are plenty of signs pointing to A Pratt.

I think the best way I can think to describe Valparaiso is a cross between San Francisco, Venice and Seville. During our wandering we came across a great little cafe overlooking the city where we we served with the most ridiculous G&T, there was hardly any room in the glass for the tonic. I heard a story from a fellow traveller that upon ordering a G&T in Chile he was given one full glass of Gin and a separate glass of Tonic, whats shocking is that there was no sign of ice or a lime.

Some of the city's transport was a little outdated

Highlights: Wandering through a city sized art gallery

Day 81 January 29th 2007, South Again - Pucon to Puerto Montt

One of the mistakes or oversights we made in Chile was booking two internal flights to get us North, without much time to research the trip it seemed a good way to cover the country. What it meant was that we landed at both Balmaceda and Puerto Montt and had to do twice as much driving. For example if we had driven from Balmaceda to Puerto Montt, travelled North as we have done this last week we would could have driven straight to Santiago from Pucon, saved a flight and not had to drive back South again. Just some advice for anyone travelling in Chile.

If you have never been to Chile or looked at a map of it this will make no sense, but as we didn't do anything but drive today I had to write something. I was going to write about how each of the towns in Chile use the same names for their streets, but as Shelley wants to write about the hero's of Chile in her blog I couldn't.

The drive however back to Puerto Montt where we fly to Santiago is pretty straight forward, the longest straight road I have driven one, no speed cameras and no cops. The only thing you have to slow down for is the toll booths every 100km or so.

Highlights: Not having to watch out for the old Bill every 5 secs

Day 80 January 28th 2007, Sulphur and Snow - Villarrica Volcano, Pucon

I have done some slightly crazy things in my time but climbing an active volcano may just top the list. Not content with just the view we joined a tour today to climb Volcano Villarrica. The day started with us collecting our gear and travelling a short distance via mini bus to the base of the Volcano. So whats required to climb a volcano? In our backpack we found the following

• Waterproof trousers and jacket
• Waterproof gloves
• Ice Axe
• Crampons
• Balaclava
• Helmet
• Gators

A kit list which seemed more at home on a Glacier hike but we soon found out that we would be walking up snow and ice for nearly 4 hours to reach the summit. With all this kit there was just about room for my lunch.

The start of the walk is at about 1,300m and we skipped the first 400m of the ascent by taking the chairlift on the advise of our guides. It was strange not having skies on and getting off at the top was rather interesting.

Shortly after arriving at the top of the chairlift the snow began and after about 20 minutes we arrived at the remains of an old chairlift that was destroyed during the 1971 eruption. We pretty much needed our ice axes from the start of the snow to keep ourselves upright, but as the sun warmed the ice and snow it got a little easier.

I had wondered what the helmet was for until shouting and whistling broke out from a group higher up the mountain, looking up a football sized piece of lava was bouncing down the mountain towards us. Impressively one of our guides manged to intercept and stop it. No mean feet given its speed and constantly changing direction as it bounced off the divots in the snow.

The view as we climbed slowly higher became more and more impressive as the clouds below us started to disperse, being this high brought back memories of the Inca Trail and the treks in Torres del Paine earlier in the trip.

After nearly 4 hours of slowly making our way through the snow we reached the summit to be greeted with wafts of sulphur fumes, one of the other groups had gas masks with them which certainly would have stopped the fumes burning your nose and throat. Luckily the strong winds were blowing towards us and we escaped most of the fumes. The wind was pretty cold as we had climbed to almost 3,000m but one of the benefits of sitting on top of an active volcano is that the grounds pretty warm. (Above: Shelley on the right warming up on the edge of the crater)

Above is a view into the crater from about as close as I was willing to get, you could hear occasional rumbling and one of the guides saw a jet of lava. Because of the fumes you could only really stay this close for about 20 seconds before the sulphur fumes became too much. The center of the crater was a quite eerie and almost a little spooky. It was also strange that no one was telling you not to get too close, with no disclaimer forms in sight you could pretty much do anything you wanted. In the picture above all of the smoke is sulphur fumes.

By the time we had reached the top myself and Shelley had all our gear on with the exception of the crampons which we didn´t need, very glad of that remembering the cramp we got after wearing them on the Perito Moreno Glacier. We were also sporting a protective sheet around legs and backside to slide down the mountain on.

It took us 4 hours to climb the volcano and about 20 minutes to get down again, sliding down almost out of control has to have been one of the most fun things I have done in years. If I hadn´t been so tired I would have climbed back up again for another run.

Several times I left the ground, manged a 360 and at the last minute before reaching a lava field had to use my ice axe to stop my descent. The experience brought back childhood memories of the first time I visited one of the water theme parks in Florida during a family holiday. Just like then I wanted one more go on the slide.

In an area of thermal activity there are numerous thermal springs and we visited the one above to sooth our aching legs.


No visit to a Volcano would be complete without a bottle of Crater beer served at one of the towns Italian restaurants.

Highlights: Climbing Villarrica Volcano and the 1,000m snow slide

Day 79 January 27th 2007, Chilean Housewives and Volcanoes - Frutilla to Pucon, 294km

What is more dangerous a smoking Volcano or trying to buy bread in a Chilean supermarket? After Shelley sent me in to get the bread today I would say it has to the be the second. I was lucky to escape from the scrum with all my limbs let alone the 3 rolls I managed to grab. Anyone would think the Volcano was erupting, the poor baker couldn't put fresh bread out quick enough, no wonder he was behind a protective glass screen.

The Volcano I'm talking about towers above the town of Pucon, a tourist town on the shores of Lago Villarrica. The town looking like it was built only last week is a haven for adventure sports with the various agencies fighting for customers on every street corner. The big attraction of course is the active Villarrica Volcano which towers over the town. The last eruption was in 1971 and luckily the Volcanic activity warning system in the town was showing green. A similar warning system for tourists outside of the supermarket would not be out of place, showing the status at the bakery counter.

According to the poster a green state indicates the following

• Presence of fumaroles
• Underground noise and continuous seismic activity
• Glaciers crack
• Sulphurous smell

After looking up what a fumarole is I hoped that the warning system also came with a great big run for it siren as I didn't want to be around for any seismic swarms

Being a tourist town we came across an oriental restaurant, the first we had found in South America, with the exception of a Sushi place in Miraflores, Peru. Noodles and spring roles were long overdue.

Highlights: The busy atmosphere of Pucon, the view of the volcano and some oriental food

Day 78 January 26th 2007, Aching Shoulders - Puerto Varas to Frutilla, 33km

With a good nights sleep under our belts we took the opportunity to put on those running shoes we brought in Argentina for a run along the lake before breakfast. We were joined again by the Littlest Hobo from the previous evening, however unlike his TV counterpart he showed no intention on saving anybody. Shelley was none to impressed with my new found friend when he ran out in front of us whilst crossing the road, laying down in our path nearly sending Shelley flying. Personally I think he was stopping the traffic for us and Shelley wasn't looking where she was going.

After Shelley kicked the Littlest Hobo he was nowhere to be seen when she nearly shipwreckled herself

To ensure that we completely wore ourselves out we took some canoes out on the lake and despite many hours in the gym my shoulders were aching after only 30mins

Highlights: Canoeing on the lake

Day 77 January 25th 2007, No sign of an English Breakfast - Cuaco to Puerto Varas, 225km

In the time long before Eurostar, before budget airlines, everyone or at least the Filby´s went to the South of France for a holiday. One of the great memories for me was always the ferry crossing and the great English Breakfasts they served up. I was disappointed today to find only a dodgy cup of coffee and a packet of crisps on offer during today's ferry crossing back to the mainland Chile.

Driving North past Puerto Montt we headed up route 5 to Puerto Varas on the shore of Lago Llanquiche. It was a bit of a culture shock with a casino that wouldn´t be out of place in Las Vegas and hundreds if not thousands of tourists, we quickly adjusted and leaving our tent firmly packed checked into one of the lakeside hotels.

With the daily budget spent on the hotel room we had to make do with tuna sandwiches for dinner followed by a walk along the lake, as always we were accompanied by the Littlest Hobo who walked with us for over an hour, even turning back and waiting for us if we paused to admire the view.

Highlights: Continuous hot water in the shower

Day 76 January 24th 2007, Darwins Restaraunt - Castro to Cuaco, 60km

Venturing a short distance across the island we came across the small town of Cuaco on the Pacific Coast, a very small village but right next to 15km of sandy beaches. The village had a strange feel to it and the restaurant, almost a Darwin museum, was not the only place playing music from the 1940´s. The food though was very modern and no stale bread in sight.

This years annual hide the boat contest got way out of hand

After a moderate walk along the beach we camped again this time next to Lago Cuaco.

Highlights: Great food at Restaurant Darwin

Day 75 January 23rd 2007, Salmon and Seaweed - Puerto Montt to Castro - Chiloe, 175km

With the roads in the Northern Lake District of Chile being in a considerably better state than those in the South we again set off in another Toyota Yaris, after flipping an imaginary coin we headed south and over to the island of Chiloe, famous for its wooden infrastructure. When the Spanish got kicked out of Chile this was their last stand and for several years they were isolated here with little contact from the outside world, with little else than wood to build with nearly all the buildings here are wooden including some impressive churches.

I remember as a kid being dragged round churches whilst my parents especially my Mum took pictures of them, well here it is the first and hopefully the last picture I have taken of a church. Yes I am concerned that I'm turning into my parents.

The island of Chiloe with its little fishing towns and houses on wooden stilts would be a nice place to spend a couple of days, however the island exports huge quantities of Salmon and Sea Weed, the Sea Weed being exported to Japan. What this means is huge lorries thundering up and down the islands very few roads at all hours. With a cargo of slowly rotting seaweed the leave behind them not only a cloud of dust but also quite a stink.

With the tide out Captain Birdseye was going nowhere fast

Making the most of out tent we camped again this evening close to the coast and luckily just out of smell and sound range of the road.

Highlights: Wooden Churches

Day 74 January 22nd 2007, Something Strange on the Menu - Puerto Montt

Reading the menu in Spanish is pretty easy now and in some of the more touristy areas they are only too happy to provide you with an menu translated into English. Just outside of Puerto Montt is a small village popular for its seafood and we were lucky to find one with a menu in English. Here is a small selection of what was on offer.

• Hedgehog Omelet
• Geranium Salmon
• Potatoes fitted with acid cream, mushrooms & cheese

I can only hope they meant sour cream, either way I reverted back to my default choice of steak.

Highlights: Steak after a week of ham and cheese sandwiches

Day 73 January 21st 2007, Punctuality - Coyhaique to Puerto Montt, 1250km

I have always prided myself on my punctuality but today I made have overdone things, we were at the airport this morning before it even opened, not before checkin opened before anyone was there at all. After much verbal abuse from Shelley about an extra hours sleep two bus loads of tourists who had never seen an airport before turned. I stood my ground on getting to an airport early as almost 100 people tried to work out which of the one chekin desks to use.

Unable to pickup our hire car until tomorrow, this time because of availability not lack of Spanish, we had some time again to spend catching up on emails and remembering that I was once a techie even a programmer in my time I added some new functionality to the blog. It has been a contentious point between myself and Shelley to how many people read the blogs and who has the best blog. As Shelley´s is a brief summary of this one I think it clear. Anyway near the right hand side of this page is a little logo under blog stats, click on this or here and you can see how many people are reading the blog and where they are located, Big Brother is watching you.

Map Stats from 29/01/07 Who in China is reading this? I hope its interesting

Puerto Montt is a small port town built on the side of a hill with streets much like that of San Francisco, unliks San Francisco there were no Gauchos exercising their horses in the towns squares impressive fountain. You can pretty much judge the wealth of a town in South America by the state of its square and Puerto Montts was quite impressive compared other we have seen for example Pisco in Peru where locals kept sheep in the dried up fountain.

Highlights: Falling asleep mid afternoon after getting up way too early for the airport

Day 72 January 20th 2007, Rio Tranquillo to Coyhaique, 218km

Much to our relief we made it back to Coyhaique today with the Yaris still in one piece, luckily covered in thick dust hiding all the new scratches, well until the owner of the B&B we stayed at gave it a free wash for us whilst watering his garden, thanks Buddie looking forward to explaining all the damage to Hertz tomorrow

With a bit of time to spare spent the day catching up on email and booking another hire car for the next stage of the trip in Puerto Montt. Despite being on the edge of the middle of nowhere we ended up in a restaurant today with some scientists we met way South in Cochrane and the family we shared a boat with out to the Marbles in Rio Tranquillo its a small world as everyone always say´s. By comparison on the trip up from Rio Tranquillo pretty much the only traffic we encountered was a rather large cow deaf to my car horn and refusing to get out of the way.

Highlights: Driving on paved roads again

Day 71 January 19th 2007, Lakeside Camp Fires - Rio Baker to Rio Tranquillo, 70km

After another short journey the Yaris is still going, we travelled North back to Rio Tranquillo where we spent out first night camping earlier in the week. Apart from the scenery the local tourist attraction is a set of marble caves carved out by the lake. Pretty much anyone can take you out there on a boat and we hired one for a tour. Visually impressive but a bit daunting sitting in a wooden boat under what must be 1000's of tons of rock, which at places seems to be held up by the thinnest piece of rock that´s slowly eroding away.

A view form inside one of the caves

One of the great things about Chile is the camping, unlike the UK there aren't really any rules. Go to the New Forest and light a match, count to 10 and a parkie will be there with a fire extinguisher threatening to throw you off the site. Here you can pitch up anywhere you like apart from private land and build a good old fashioned campfire. Not having any way of keeping food cold I was without a steak or two to BBQ so we ventured in Puerto Rio Tranquillo to find one of the towns only restaurants. The menu was vast fried chicken or fried chicken with as much half stale bread as you can eat.

Highlights: Campfires on the beach

Day 70 January 18th 2007, J R Hartley - Cochrane to Rio Baker, 40km

One thing you notice in all the countries we have visited in South America is the number of stray dogs roaming the streets, many of these have owners but are just left to roam free. The result of this is like being in an episode of the Littlest Hobo with a dog following you around everywhere you go. Today was no exception and we had a small puppy waiting for us outside our tent this morning. The little b****r although very cute was trying his best to mark everything we owned as his territory not being able to move the Toyota Yaris he was quick to make it his.

One of the lakeside views in the Cochrane National Park

Over the last few days we have done a considerable amount of driving along the Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) with the stunning landscape whizzing past us, this has left us feeling a little removed from the experience, feeling that we haven't really got in touch with what this region of Chile has to offer. We set out today to change all of this, first with a short walk through the National Park at Cochrane before driving North again and stopping off at Rio Baker. We could have carried on South but given the state of the Toyota Yaris and that the road to O´ Higgins is supposed to be exceptionally bad we thought better of it.

I decided to check that the engine wasn´t about to fall out

After packing up camp we set off again with the Yaris complaining, knowing nothing about cars what so ever I inspected the engine and all I could tell was that it was still there. Luckily we only had to travel 40km today to Rio Baker which is famous for fly fishing. After 3 days under canvas and very little hot water we checked into a log cabin right next to the Rio Baker (below)

After a hot shower (desperately needed) we managed to convince the hotel manager Dennis to give us a lesson in fly fishing. It was great fun, I didn´t catch a thing although I manged to get my fly caught in a tree, the decking and on my trousers (too close for comfort), luckily I noticed before trying to cast again. All this while Salmon jumped freely just meters from the bank. Our teacher Dennis was a little bemused as to why we couldn't catch anything and on his first attempt pulled out a foot long trout. He was even more amused when he discovered I shared the same name as the most popular type of fly "The Adam". After the lesson Dennis walked back to his cabin laughing to himself "very funny, very funny". Despite not catching anything the scenery was great and it was very relaxing.

Highlights: Fly Fishing

Day 69 January 17th 2007, Uh oh wrong way - Chile Chico to Cochrane, 181km

I am getting used to life under canvas now but I have to say the food or should I say rations leave a little to be desired. No sign of steak, lamb or even fresh fish at any of the small supermercados we come across. You can always find the ingredients to make a ham and cheese sandwich, although I am getting a little tired of these now.

A 180km doesn´t sound like a long way but in a Toyota Yaris on dirt tracks it certainly is. On arriving in Cochrane we followed the guide books suggestion and found the first of the two campsites, a locals back garden. So we headed off to find the campsite located 12km within the national park. 20km and a drive which would have put a land rover through its paces we realised we had made a wrong turn and headed back to the town. This little side trip seems to have proved too much for the Toyota Yaris which now makes a loud banging sound every time we go up a hill, the sort of noise which would make you take your car straight to the garage.

Making it back to the town we followed a different track and found the campsite we were looking for 2km down the road. After setting up camp I treated Shelley to dinner at what is widely regarded as the best restaurant in town "El Fogon"

Highlights: Dinner at the best restaurant in town

Day 68 January 16th 2007, Brrrrrrrrrrrrr - Rio Tranquillo to Chile Chico, 165km

The spectacular scenery is starting to get a little lost on me know after nearly 2 months in Patagonia. After driving for nearly 6 hours yesterday and another 4 today the rally style driving is also a little tiring. The Toyota Yaris is still holding up though which is good. We arrived today at Chile Chico which is on the border with Argentina. Not tempted to spend an hour crossing the border we settled in for our seconds night camping at another campsite on the shore of Lago General Carrera. With no water at yesterday´s campsite a shower was overdue luckily this campsite had water, I love cold showers.

Our Luxury Tent

Highlights: Another night by the lake

Day 67 January 15th 2007, Camping it up - Coyhaique to Rio Tranquillo, 268km

After resolving my differences with Hertz we finally picked up our hire car today and we were quickly on our way, after buying a tent, stocking up on supplies from the supermarket and a visit to the bank, we eventually got on the road at midday. Now everyone we have spoken to and everything we have read on driving in this region has advise on a 4x4. Looking at the map and seeing that most of the road we planned to travel on was paved we hired a saloon. After 100km into the drive I discovered that the maps we had were not entirely accurate with regard to the road surfaces.

One of the views from today

As smooth tarmac road gave way to 150km of what I can only describe as a cross between a rumble strip and a gravel driveway littered with boulders, the Toyota Yaris began to struggle a little. Luckily Shelley had the foresight to buy me a rally driving lesson a couple of years ago for Christmas and I was able to handbrake turn my way through the winding dirt tracks to Rio Tranquillo with no problem at all.

The view of Lago General Carrera from our campsite

We found a campsite next to the shore of Lago General Carrera which according to one source is the 3rd largest lake in South America. I say one source as I have found reference to several other lakes claiming to be the third largest in South America. Given that it is the 3rd largest I have now visited the largest 3 lakes in South America oooh Lake Titicaca (Peru), Lago Argentina (Argentina) and now Lago General Carrera (Chile).

To give you an idea of the size of these lakes, Lake Geneva has a surface area of 581.3km sq whereas Lago General Carrera is 3 times the size with a surface area of 1,850km sq. With the size of the lake it appears to have a small tide and when the wind got up it could certainly throw some rollers at the shore. So far from any from of light pollution and being a moon free night the night sky was amazing almost unbelievable.

Highlights: Camping by the river

Day 66 January 14th 2007, Warm & Dry Warm & Dry - Coyhaique

With it being Sunday everything apart from Internet Cafe´s and coffee shops (for people to read travel books and grow beards in) is shut. A flash back to how Sunday´s used to be in the UK. With all the rental car places in town shut we were without car and stuck in Coyhaique until tomorrow. Taking a leaf out of the poverty travellers book we checked into a cheap hotel which Shelley nicknamed "minging murtles".

After a quick visit to the tourist information office who informed us that the nearest marked trails in the National Park were a 37km Bus ride away, we found nearly 100km of marked trails starting just outside the town in the Coyhaique National Park 2km away. The lady in the tourist info told us she didn´t get to see as much of the local area as she would like, really I would never have guessed!!

The lake district in Chile is stunning but in Summer it is plagued by horse flies which are a damn nuisance. They buzz around your head, always two never more. Then if you stand still they settle and bite you. What makes them especially annoying is that their bite isn´t like a mosquito's (which is bad enough), they actually tear your skin with their mandibles and then drink blood from the cut. If you try and swat them too early they fly off again but leave them long enough they seem to concentrate on lining up the bite a little too much and they are easily crushed. Our walk this afternoon was therefore interrupted by constant swearing and stops to swat the damn things.

After sampling the locally caught Salmon we headed back to "minging murtles" where despite complaining constantly Shelley finally dosed off to sleep muttering "Warm and Dry at least I'm Warm and Dry"

Highlights: Coyhaique National Park

Day 65 January 13th 2007, Dinner at the Firemans Casino - Punta Arenas to Balmaceda

Today the great escape from this dump was supposed to be at 08:30 but our flight was cancelled and we had to wait until 17:30 to get out of here. Anywhere enough of the most boring town in the World. We finally arrived in Balmaceda and the landscape once again flowed with snow capped mountains and being the Chilean Southern Lake District lakes that were made for water skiing on, unfortunately no water ski-ing allowed in the National Parks, 48% of Chile is protected land under the National Park scheme. Balmaceda itself is just an airport so after an argument with Hertz we ditched the planned hire car and caught a min bus to Coyhaique the main town in what´s called the Aysen region of Chile.

Despite the size of the town it was pretty difficult to get a room, surprising given that at 22:00 the towns restaurants and bars were deserted (everyone in coffee shops growing beards) For dinner we visited the highly recommended Casino de Bombaderos, not quite the Fireman's Casino but more what appeared to be the local fire stations canteen which was open to the public, pretty good chicken and chips.

Highlights: Dinner at Casino de Bombaderos

Day 64 January 12th Still Soooooooooo Bored - Punta Arenas

After yesterdays excitement of the post office today was pretty quiet in comparison, we did visit the towns English Pub which was almost empty, everyone was in coffee shops reading travel books and growing beards.

Highlights: Knowing that we leave Punta Arenas tomorrow

Day 63 January 11th 2007 Soooooooo Bored - Punta Arenas

Ah I am so glad to be back in Punta Arenas. I have in the past been accused by those who know me of passing judgement too quickly so I decided to give Punta Arenas a second chance. After another day here I can confirm I was correct in my first assessment of the town, it´s s**t. To make matters worse the atmosphere isn´t exactly elevated by what I can only describe as poverty travellers. On our travels we come across many other travellers all on different budgets. I´m not saying you should be spending all the money in the world to see it but this group of people just wind me up, it´s as if they are in some competition to see how little money they can survive on. "Hey I only spent a $ today" what do they want a medal or something. From my observations all they seem to do is stagnate in coffee shops all day becoming guide books experts on the world whilst growing beards. They then see absolutely none of which they have read about because they have no money. Get a damn job and then contribute some money back to the countries you are visiting, which are dependant on tourism, rather then make them look like one big homeless shelter.

I have though found two interesting points about Punta Arenas. The first is that the post office seems to be highly efficient, probably because it doesn´t hand out money to all the looser's like the ones in the UK do. Secondly the town square has ropes between the lamp posts on each of the corners, they act as handrails for when the wind gets up and almost blows you into another town.

Highlights: The Post Office

Day 62 January 10th 2006, Penguins - Magdalena Island

The final part of our cruise brought us back to Punta Arenas, before breakfast we had a chance to visit the vast Magellanic Penguin colony at Magdalena Island just North of Punta Arenas.

Aguila Glacier to Magdalena Island to Punta Arenas

Very much like Punto Tombo in Argentina there were Penguins as far as the eye could see, being an island it was a lot quieter than Punta Tombo but quite a bit colder due to the wind.

Perhaps because its quieter here there were some nesting but very noisy seagulls. We saw a couple of neighborly disputes between the gulls and penguins, one incident looked like there were 3 penguins trying to pull a seagull apart, pulling its wings and tails in opposite directions. You will be pleased to know that the gull eventually got away launching a volley of what must have been abuse back at the penguins. A scene worthy of a Jerry Springer show.

Penguins taking to the sea for their breakfast

Now kids after me "Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine"

Just before lunch we arrived at Punta Arenas from where we fly North to Balmaceda this Saturday, at least this time the shops and cafe´s were open in the town.

Highlights: Magdalena Island

Day 61 January 9th 2007, Mud Glorious Mud - Chico Inlet & Aguila Glacier

As we headed out of the Beagle Channel we were briefly buffeted by the Pacific´s big rollers, not a problem apart from the fact that everything in the cabin rolls with the ship. Including all the small items in the cabins draws and wardrobe which are impossible to find and secure at 1 AM in the morning.

Pia Glacier to Chico Inlet

The Chico inlet was beautiful, the water covered in broken ice and small icebergs from the Glacier, a magnificent waterfall cascading from the top of the valley with 2 Glaciers at the end of the inlet to finish off the scene. As we edged closer to the rock face we could see some movement which turned out to be a colony of nesting King Cormorants.

Above: Views in the Chico Inlet

King Cormorants nesting

The afternoon´s visit to the Aguila Glacier became very interesting when we opted to take the forest walk option, also know as the muddy walk. Luckily the ship supplied wellie boots, unluckily the mud was deeper than the boots, a pair of waders would have been more appropriate. I had a flashback to when I was about 5 or 6 on a school trip, walking in the mud on a farm I became stuck fast, faced with being left behind and spending the night out in the open or walk out of my boots, I made the brave decision to tackle the mud in my socks. Nothing quite so heroic this time, other than saving Shelley from falling over every few minutes, she did manage to fall flat on her face in the mud once though ;)

Don´t just stand there laughing

In Dagobah Yoda was nowhere to be seen

The views at the end of the walk were worth it

Being our last night on the cruise we did a very good job of trying to drink the bar dry with some our European counterparts from Germany and Holland. One of the zodiac captains (above) stocked up on ice for the bar whilst we were in the inlet, he was quite particular about which ice he picked up. He must have done a good job as the G&T´s went down very well.

Highlights: Getting out of those muddy boots