Diane

Today we went to the beach for the morning excursion. Yep we took the zodiac to a teeny, tiny white, sandy beach in the fjords. It was surrounded by limestone mountains/cliffs. On the way to the beach we saw a limestone open pit mine and southern river otter swimming in the water and running up the hill. It also rained on us.

The mountains here at Isle Madre de Dios are limestone so they look quite different from the mountains we’ve seen before and have sharp edges. They are softer than the other mountains and the rain and water erode the rock to make patterns. The mountains were once covered by glaciers but they have all melted so the land has risen. At the edge where the mountains meet the water there are lines that show the tidal lines from years ago.

In the afternoon, we went on a kayak ride in Canel Conceptcion and we got to see dolphins.

Another day of glaciers but we only visited one glacier today. In the morning we were traveling and had a couple of presentations. In the afternoon we visited Bernal Glacier in Parque Nacional Kawésqar. We got to walk on shore and see all the vegetation and a special thrill- we saw a large bumblebee on the fuchsia flowers. The bumblebee seemed to be extra fuzzy.

More glaciers today after a bit of a rocky ride in the middle of the night that splashed water onto our deck as we just went past the outer edge of the Pacific Ocean. We had a zodiac cruise today to Vergara Glacier which is also named Condor Glacier or Aguilar Glacier. Most of the glaciers have more than one name- some are native, some are common and some are on the map. It’s very confusing to try to mark the route on a map to show the glaciers we visited are since the names don’t necessarily agree with what is listed on our itinerary.

We had gone to the Vergara Glacier on the prior cruise so it was fun to see it a bit later in the season and with different lighting. We took the zodiac and landed on the rocky beach and then were allowed to walk to the glacier and into the forest. Tibor went into the forest but I walked to the glacier. I love having the mud boots so I don’t have to worry about crossing the streams and walking in the mud. On the way back to the zodiac it was fun to see a number of small birds in the forest along the beach. One of them the xx was the focus of a presentation later where they found a new species in a group of islands off of Cape Horn.

In the afternoon we took another zodiac ride to two glaciers- Pupupo and xx. We had just entered the zodiac and left the ship when we were excited to see a humpback whale. It was a beautiful glacier.

We were happy to learn that the conditions were favorable to go on a kayak at the Porter Glacier in Pia Fjord stop. It was a beautiful sunny day with hardly any wind and calm seas. We had a great time kayaking. After we re-boarded the zodiac, it took us to the landing spot where we got out to walk around and see the glacier.

Tibor went to a spot to watch the glacier hoping to see calving but didn’t see any. I hiked up to the lookout spot- the views were amazing. We were both on the last passenger zodiac back. The staff were in the last zodiac.

We had lunch almost immediately after boarding while the ship headed to Garibaldi Glacier.

When we arrived it was still sunny and the seas were relatively calm but the kayak outing was cancelled because of wind. We all went on a zodiac ride thru the broken ice. It was another wonderful outing. While we were on the zodiac, the ship did end up having to more to a slightly more protected area because the wind increased.

When we got back to the ship we had some free time before the end of day briefing and introduction to tomorrow’s activities. Right after the daily briefing it was time for dinner.

We had dinner with two crew members. Crew members are allowed to have lunch/dinner with the guests. It’s up to them if they want to or not.

We could tell as soon as we left the fjords and headed out to the Pacific side of the fjords because the waves and ship motion increased.

Another late morning and breakfast at the hotel. We packed up our bags and stored them at the reception area since we had to checkout by 10am and could not board the ship until 3pm.

We found some nice comfortable chairs in the downstairs lobby and worked on our photos. About 1pm we went out for lunch at a little place Tibor found yesterday on his walk. We had to be back in time for Tibor to get his massage at 2pm.

A little before 3pm we hauled our bags over to the check-in station. We were allowed to check in between 3pm and 4pm. All they did was to check our passport name against a list of passengers to verify we were on the ship. Then we had to haul our bags all the way down to the end of the pier- what a pain. It was very windy and my duffel bag kept falling off my rolling bag and I ended up carrying it. Then I had to stop and change hands/sides a couple of times before we (finally) got to the ramp to board the ship. At this point, the company collected the bags to delivery them to our cabin! Sure wish they could have collected them before we had to walk down the entire pier.

We have a very nice room with a tiny balcony. I love the balcony. We are on a lower deck and are relatively close to the water and have great views out the cabin windows. If we see something we want to photograph, we can just open the door to our balcony and have a clear view.

We did our safety drill, listened to a welcome message, had a captions cocktail, late dinner and then met for our Kayak Safety Briefing. There are 20 spots available for Kayakers and about 15 people had signed up. They broke us up into two groups. If the conditions are good at each stop, one group can go kayaking. The groups then rotate. We have 8 people in our group. The safety briefing was a bit scary because it listed all the things that could go wrong. Many folks had lots of kayaking experience and I have very little.

Here’s how a kayaking excursion would go:

• Zodiacs with excursion crew is sent out to scout the area for a good spot to kayak.
• If all is ok, the kayaks are removed from the ship and attached by rope to a zodiac. If they can’t find a good spot to kayak, the kayak excursion is cancelled and we go on the regular excursion.
• This zodiac is with the kayak group the entire time we are kayaking. It’s a safety measure and can collect us if the conditions change for the worse and we need to get back to the ship.
• We get into the Zodiac pulling the kayaks and zodiac to the spot where we will kayak
• We load onto the kayak directly from the zodiac and start kayaking
• After about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of kayaking, we re-board the zodiac (directly from the kayak)
• If we have time, we are taken to the same landing site all the other passengers have enjoyed and get to enjoy it for short time otherwise we are taken back to the ship

Dinner is plated and you select what you want from a menu. Breakfast and lunch are buffet.

Another day to sleep in and have a late breakfast. Tibor went off to go for a walk/hike. My throat was sore so I stayed at the hotel although I did go out to get some souvenirs and lunch and Tibor brought home pastries.

We slept in today and had breakfast at the hotel. It was a delicious breakfast. After breakfast we took our clothes to the laundromat. It was a blend of self-service and full-service. There were three washers and three dryers. We were directed to put our clothes in the washer, select the temperature and press start. The owner would move the clothes to the dryer. He said come back in an hour and a half and pick up the dried clothes. We took them out of the dryer and brought them back to the hotel.

We worked on photos for a bit in the morning, had a delicious lunch of Chilean King Crab and watched soccer in the evening.

We were up early today and had a delicious breakfast at the hotel. Then we hauled our luggage over the Bus Sur bus station- it wasn’t too far and wasn’t raining so not as bad as it could have been. It started raining as we boarded the bus. Our bus left about 8am for a 10-hour drive from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia.

The bus was very comfortable and it would have been even better if the person in front of me didn’t put their seat all the way back. We even had WiFi on the bus. The bus made a number of bathroom stops, plus we stopped at the Chile border for immigration control to leave Chile. Then about 5 minutes later we stopped at the Argentina border for immigration control to enter Argentina. Both were effortless and straightforward.

We enjoyed the fall colors we saw along the drive. We arrived in Ushuaia about 6pm and hauled our luggage over to our Ushuaia hotel(Hotel Albatross)- it was very near the bus stop/station, relatively flat and not raining so it wasn’t too difficult.

Easy check-in and nice room and I was happy to lay flat. We found a nice place for dinner and were happy to have ‘real’ food since the last few days we’ve had lots of bread with cheese and salami with the bedtime chocolate from my Sydney to Sydney cruise.

We spent another day driving. We drove from Puerto Natales back to Torres Del Paine after a late breakfast(8am!!) and checking out of our hotel.

We took a slightly different route and visited Laguna Azul first where we saw Guanaco in front of the lake and snowy mountain peaks. It was a bit windy but there was a very short time when we could barely see the top of the towers(the famous three peaks in Torres Del Paine). This is the area we were heading to yesterday when we turned around because we were worried about running out of gas.

After that we drove a slightly different route out of the park so that we could pass by Laguna Ameraga. It was a very pretty mint green lake but the best part is that there were lots of cars parked with people with big cameras all pointing in the same direction. And, yes indeed, they were all watching a puma. After a bit, we were able to barely see the puma with our camera. For sure a highlight of the day even tho it was quite far away.

We had planned to visit Milonga Cave where there was a skeleton of a mammoth sloth and bones of other mega fauna but when we got to the junction it was already 3pm and we decided we’d just continue down the road to Punta Arenas. We didn’t want to get in too late.

We were disappointed there were no condors when we got to the mountain where we saw 6 or 7 condors the day before yesterday. We did see the flamingos and guanacos again.

On the way to Punta Arenas, we got the very sad news that Jennifer, a very close friend of 20+ years, passed away today.

We drove about 100 km to Torres Del Paine National Park. We left a bit early to try to get good views of the mountains and hoped to see a puma. Once we arrived at Torres Del Paine we took the long route thru the park and saw many wonderful sights but no pumas. Tibor purchased tickets to the park yesterday so it was a simple matter of showing them the pass at the checkpoint and we were into the park.

The geology was interesting. There is a black cap of metamorphic rock on top of granite. And there were rows of harder rock interspersed with softer rocks. Some of the large peaks look knife edged.

We drove around so much of the park we were very worried about running out of gas. We actually turned around and didn’t go to Laguna Azul in order to conserve gas. There were no gas stations between Puerto Natales and Torres Del Paine- that we saw at least and we forgot to fill up before we left Puerto Natales. Tibor was very careful of his speed, used the downhill speed to get uphill, and manually shifted. He increased the liters per gallon from 14.3 to 15.7 so we made it back to town without running out of gas. Whew!