Fijords of Chile

The fijords of Chile have been been put high on my list as a must see place down here. The trip takes about 4 days and goes from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. This will be the longest time that I’ve been on a ferry/ship. NaviMag ferry's carry cargo and passengers.

We boarded Monday night from the bus station. This seemed a bit ironic as you would think it would be at the docks. There seems to be about 100 passengers and I believe it can take over 200, but its nice its not completely full. Our cabin was in the front of the boat with a window that looked out on the bow. Being up front was great for seeing things coming, but it had its drawbacks as we discovered on day 3.

Day 1 & 2
The ferry stayed docked all night while they loaded all the cargo trucks on board. It was scheduled to leave at 07:00 Tuesday morning, but didn't leave until after lunch. We were told the reason for this is because the high winds and rougher seas would make it difficult to go through the narrow passage which is 80m wide. The fijords are definitely very beautiful. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see all the peaks because the weather hid them from view. We weren't able to see Glaciar Tempanos because of the weather. So while the weather may not have been the best, we had fun making friends. Justine & Chanel from South Africa were the first friends we made on the boat and they definitely brought a lot of humour to our interaction.

Day 3
We had been warned that when the ship had to come out on the Gulf of Peñas we would be subjected to rough waves and to take some pills to help. I decided not to for the reason of wanting to know my bodies tolerance for being thrown around. Llew unfortunately did not take the pills and so was seasick for most of the day. Our cabin being at the front of the boat didn't help as it pitched around a lot. I tried to stay out on the bow for a while to catch waves crashing over and then in the afternoon I was at the stern doing circuit workouts and talking with passengers. Its quite interesting doing pushups & side planks on a deck that is rolling around. haha! Towards evening the ship headed back into the fijords and the rough ride was over. Yay! Llew recovered and emerged from his cave. We watched the setting sun and the moon rise above the mountains. Everyone was in good spirits again. :)

Day 4

The last day was not as beautiful weather wise or scenery as the ship was in a very large passage way and the clouds hung low.  I spent a bit of time indoors again talking to people.  I talked to Stu & Janell who are an aussie couple that rode motorcycles from Texas to Ushuaia and were on there way back up.  They have a dog, Negrita that loves riding.  You can read more about them here http://www.thepacktrack.com/.  Another couple that I immediately felt a connection with was Salvador & Gisela.  They are 2.5 years into their honeymoon round the world trip.  They are doing basically the same type of itinerary as me, except they're going west to east.  I talked to them about many of the places they've been that I will end up visiting.  They were a wealth of knowledge and the nicest couple.  You can read about their adventures here: http://ourfirstworldtrip.com/en/

Llew and I also got to know a group of American girls, Katherine, Elizabeth, and Jill who are traveling around for 4 months.  They're known as the Georgia-girls and really nice gals.

A good memory from the boat was Juan-Pablo (staff member that made announcements).  He would make announcements as such, "please come to the front of the boat to appreciate...".  We did a lot of appreciating on the trip and now its a part of all of our vocabulary. :)