Puerto Natales
After the days in Torres del Paine, Puerto Natales was my first real encounter with Chile, and there are certainly differences to Argentina. Apart from a lot of Chilean people looking different, they speak really fast and incomprehensible to almost all but themselves as they use a lot of slang, that is not used outside Chile. Other obvious differences at arrival, are that you can exchange more money per time. The internet works better. You can pay by credit card anywhere using the code and without signature. In Argentina both parts are required and in the supermarket they also need to see the passport and.
Puerto Natales is a small cozy town with a promenade at the harbour, a square and a church in the middle of the town. There are lots of restaurants and a few shopping streets. The bus terminal on the outskirts of the city, is relatively new, but no bank and no ATM. Luckily there was an information desk where they told me, I could pay a taxi with Argentinian pesos. Taxis are cheap and with a fixed price for tours in the city, but beware, some drivers cheat foreigners, if they get the opportunity. There is not much to look at in the city, but in addition to being the gate to Torres Del Paine just north of the city is a place where you can see caves and rock formations which should be well worth visiting.
The boat trip
Southern Chile is not suitable for buses. It is possible to drive in that part of Chile, but it takes a long time and also require some boattrips between islands. An alternative is to take Route 40 in Argentina via El Calafate to Bariloche and from there back to Chile – to Puerto Montt via Osorno – it is a trip of just under 2,000 km. As I had no plans on doing the off road driving, I chose a cruise to get further north. Or not exactly a cruise, but 4-5 days with a ferry – an old ferry – which currently sails with tourists, but also serves as transport for trucks, containers, and even animals – cows.
I had imagined the tour a bit like the “Hurtigruten” along the Norwegian coast, and it is theoretically correct, but the standard here was something different. It was an old boat and the comfort in cabins non existent. However, I was fortunate that my gambling – not booking a single cabin for double the price – paid off. I got the cabin by myself as the boat fortunately was not fully booked. It was as mentioned old – from 1978 – without Internet and without telephone connections in most part of the trip, as there was no signal. Southern Chile is a deserted area.
The ferry docked only once on the trip, in the town of Puerto Eden, partly to supply goods brought to the city and partly to pick up passengers. The city’s port is not big enough for the ferry, so the anchor was cast a little beyond where we circled around while goods and passengers were picked up and delivered by small boats. The city is visited twice a week from the north and twice a week from the south, and that’s the way they get their daily necessities.
A large part of the trip we sailed through the fjords, and a few times we had to wait for the tide before we could sail through narrow passages. Weather has a huge impact on this trip. The day the boat arrived in Puerto Natales, the wind conditions was so bad that they had to wait many hours to get to port. It meant that we did not, as planned could come aboard at 9 p.m., but had to wait until 11 p.m.. I had checked in earlier in the day at the local bus station where most of us also stored our luggage for the day. We were summoned to meet at 8.30 p.m. to pick up our luggage and be transported by bus to the terminal. At 8.35 p.m. we were then told, that we had to wait 2 hours, so they could get the ferry emptied and made ready. Departure next morning was scheduled for 6:00 a.m. but first the last containers had to be removed and then the boat had to be loaded again, so we did not depart until 2 p.m. We were however as planned served both breakfast and lunch.
The weather was fine with sunshine that day and after a morning in Puerto Natales the first hours of sailing were past beautiful scenery.
There was plenty of time to talk with the other passengers and exchange travel experiences and it was really interesting to hear what all the other great people had experienced on this and other trips. Fortunately, many speaks English, but beyond the Hispanic there were a lot of German and French speaking people on this tour.
Every day was the same program breakfast at 8 a.m. lunch at half past noon and dinner at 7.30 p.m.
In the hours between eating we were entertained partly by nature outside, but also by a guide who gave us great information about the trip, the flora and fauna in Patagonia, about Puerto Montt and the Chiloe islands. All the information was first in Spanish and then in English.
The guide also announced, when there was something special to see outside, and then we all hurried out to look and be ready with our cameras. A few times we saw whales, but from a very long distance.
After the first full day sailing we were going out into the open sea during the night. It was announced that it would be rough weather, and maybe we should take tablets to avoid being seasick. Before bedtime we passed an old shipwreck, and although it rained and stormed a lot, we all tried to get a good view and a picture.
I don’t think anyone got sick, but it rocked a lot also the next day, and not everybody was feeling great. Luckily I did not have any problems. It also rained so there was not much to look at that day.
If anyone has read about the earthquake in Chile on December 25, it was in this area where we sailed into the open sea south of the island of Chiloe, but when I passed a little more than a week earlier, it was only severe weather.
Day 4 was supposed to be our last full day, but because of the storm we had been further delayed and our arrival time in Puerto Montt would not be announced until the next morning.
Temperature-wise, we could feel that we had come further north and the weather was better, but I think we were all very happy, when we finally mid day left the open sea and went back into the fjords with coast on both sides.
According to the plan we should have been in Puerto Montt at 6 a.m. in the morning but we ended up with another full day of sailing and did not arrive until 9.p.m. Fortunately we reached an area where we could get a phone signal, so we were able to change bookings or inform about a late arrival.
Summary
Apart from flying it is probably the easiest way to get to the north, but the bad weather in the open sea, and a whole day’s delay made the trip a little too long and the food a little repetitive on 4 consecutive days, so it was nice to come ashore again.
The nature is beautiful, but very much the same all the way. Sometimes we are close to the coast and sometimes it is far away. At the open sea, there was nothing to look at, so there was plenty of time to read, write and talk together when we were not entertained by the guide.
I am not very happy with my pictures from this trip but there are a few more her
This entry was posted in "Cruise", Chile, Destinations, South America
