Choose another map, showing:

• South America (south)
• South America
• The World

Other entries in Puerto Natales

Puerto Natales 20-23 February 2007

Buenos Dias Senors y Senoras

Left El Calafate by bus and once again crossed into Chile to Puerto Natales,  to wait to board the ferry.  Stayed at Casa Cecilia which was a great hostel.  Owned by a family who were very obliging and spoke English.  Breakfast was good and although we shared a bathroom here,  it was fine.  They had a kitchen for guests use and we took advantage of this to cook our own dinner on 2 of the nights.  Very simple stuff  (tinned soup one night and scrambled eggs, tomato and bacon another night.

From Puerto Natales we took a tour to Torres del Paine National Park.  Our day was filled with awesome scenery, bright blue Patagonian lakes,  snow capped mountain peaks, Glacier Gray with blue icebergs, guanacos (small alpaca), condors,  foxes, nandu (small ostriches),  all sorts of hawks, eagles, ducks and geese.  Before arriving at the park we visited Cueva del Milodon,  a huge cave which contains the replica of a 4m high sloth the remains of which was discovered in the 1890's.

We had to board the ferry at 9.15pm and had dinner before boarding at a traditional Chilean restaurant.   Pete had tomato stuffed with chicken,  followed by meat, potato and egg pie and I had "hen casserole with vegetables".  It was a great meal and different to anything we have had previously.  We will try to eat local when we can.

The Navimag ferry is actually a cargo freighter that takes about 120 passengers.  To use the word ferry is misleading,  as the ship is actually very large and capable of ocean voyages.  We had booked a double cabin with our own bathroom,  and because we travelled on a different ship to the one we had booked on,  we didnt get this cabin.  Instead we had a 4 berth cabin with our own bathroom to ourselves - small but very cosy with our own porthole.  We had 3 meals a day - basic food,  but OK.  The ship had small lounge and dining areas and showed movies in the lounge.  The Chilean Fiordland scenery was just amazing,  travelling through this part of the world where no one lives.  Our 4 days on board was very relaxing and we spent a lot of time on deck,  watching whales, seals and birds and dolphins - also visited another glacier.  Had one stopover at a place called Puerto Eden.  Left the ship at 7.00am and travelled to the island by small boat.  The island is home to the last remaining indigenous family of 9 pure bred natives.  The other families who live there are of mixed race.  At one part of the journey we had to leave the straights and cross a gulf and the Pacific ocean which can be extremely rough, but we were lucky and had relatively calm weather.  Our last day on board was a beautiful sunny day and we spent most of it on deck, talking to different people from all over the world,  swapping experiences.  The last night on board they entertained us with bingo,  but it was in Spanish!!!!  As we can only count up to 10 we didnt bother.

The ship docked in Puerto Mont at 2.00am and we disembarked at 8.00am on our way to Isla Chiloe.

By for now,

Sam & Pete