Travel broadens the mind...

Not having made enough southward progress to this date I cancelled my trip to Parque Pumalin (now on the list of future places to visit) and, though not really needing a rest per say, decided to change up my travel routine by voyaging south to Puerto Natales via boat instead of bus. Joining something like 200-250 people from around the world I boarded the Esmeralda, a cargo ship with sleeping cabins, a restaurant and bar on the top three levels. The four day-three night voyage would take me from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, winding through the Patagonian Channels, stopping to re-supply a small port/fishing town on the route, and even setting out for a time on the open ocean. I had heard good things about the trip and so was looking forward to seeing what would develop.

Day one was spent getting to know the ship as well as the people in the bunks near me and many others on the boat. I was in “C” class, which meant bunk beds and shared bathrooms. But everything was surprisingly comfortable and ended up working out very well. Perhaps because everyone knew there were four days ahead with little but each other for company, or perhaps because travelers (or the people on this boat) are just wired in a certain way, everyone was quite amicable and social toward one another. One (of the three) “groups” of people my age, with whom I would hang out with quite a bit, was a group of four kayakers that had spent the previous month running the world class white-water rivers near Futalefú. Coincidentally enough, one of the three was from and grew up in Boise (yes, we knew some of the same people), and two others lived and worked in McCall. What a small world…

As I would do over the next several days, I spent a few hours outside on the decks taking in the mountain scenery. The landscape consisted of a foreground of green hills and foothills over a backdrop of the not too distant Andes Mountains. The constant though shifting landscape was almost hypnotizing and it made it very easy to get lost in my own thoughts, something that would happen frequently over the next few days. After dinner I returned to the deck to watch the sunset. With a cold wind in our faces the people on the boat were treated to a spectacular sunset over the ocean; and as we all turned around to go back inside we were blown away by the site of a full moon rising over the Andes. Truly a unique and memorable moment.

After sharing a bottle of wine with another group of people that I met I decided to take in the movie that was being shown that night, then hit the wall around 11:30 and was asleep soon thereafter.

Days two and three were very similar in that they were spent reading, watching and photographing the landscape, sun bathing, or catching up on my travel journal on deck; playing cards or chatting with the other people; or participating in some of the activities on the boat. Midway through day two we left the calm, protected waters of the island channels and set out for the open sea. According the captain and crew we were lucky in that we had pretty mild seas for our trip. In spite of this, many people became sea-sick and spent the night in the bathrooms or in their beds while most others, not feeling sick but not feeling well either due to the rocking of the boat, opted to spend the night reading in their bunks. But not everyone. A small group that included an hilarious retired Norwegian couple, several people from the UK and me passed the night in the bar until the wee hours of the morning. The Norwegian, Bjorn (whose joking motto of the night “we’re going down like the Titanic, we must drink like there is no tomorrow!”), and two of the English would not let anyone at the table be without a drink and so before long there were many, many empty bottles of beer, wine and liquor scattered about the empty bar and nearby tables. Between the antics of Bjorn, the humour of the Brits and the stories that everyone told (and in turn fed off of to tell another), and several rounds of drinks I laughed more and harder that night than I have in a long time.

On day three we also detoured to see one of the glaciers/snow drifts that are scattered throughout southern Chile and Argentina. The sheer size of this huge, though comparatively small, “ventisquiero” is hard to convey, nor can I express how cool it was to see this river valley walled up by a 55 foot wall of centuries old ice. In either case, it was incredible to see, particularly in that, crass and negative as it may be, the odds of this existing in even a few years are slim… Night three the whole boat gathered in the bar for a last night party that was filled with bingo, dancing (for the bingo prizes), and many, many drinks; I was amazed that almost everyone on the boat participated in the party and most were up until well after 2:30.

On the morning of our last day we began to see the spectacular part of southern Chile. We passed mountains that you could tell were big and sharp even from a distance, and we continued to weave through the islands that were occasionally spotted with fishing boats or villages. More than anything the journey heightened the sense of anticipation of coming to southern Chile, with some of the most beautiful terrain in the world.

In all, the trip was better than expected. I met many new people, many of whom I hope to meet up with again (such as the Idaho people) and was able to recharge my batteries in anticipation of my soon to be realized excursion into Torres del Paine and other national parks/wilderness areas in the south.