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