The Love Boat

The Love Boat - There are three ways to get from southern Patagonia back to mainland Chile and Argentina - by air, land or sea. Having already done the air route a couple of times and not being too anxious for the two day bus ride, I opted to travel by sea. The Navimag Ferry was once a strictly commercial route to ferry supplies to and from Patagonia. But someone clearly realized the tourist potential of the trip and the ferry now carries several hundred passengers in addition to it's standard load of supplies and cattle (yes, cattle - there were probably about 100 cows on the boat with us). The passenger part of the boat is small. There are three decks, one for rooms, another for the cafeteria and the top deck is a pub as well as a sightseeing deck. We spent 4 nights and 3 days on the boat which travelled from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt.

Prior to getting on the boat, I had an entire day to kill in Puerto Natales. That morning, at breakfast, I met Robyn and Tom, two friends from the UK who I discovered were also heading for the boat and subsequently, Chiloe, my eventual post-boat destination. It's amazing how quickly and easily you can find travelling companions when you least expect it. Together, we set about doing some pre-boat preparations including much needed laundry after Torres del Paine and grocery shopping. Although the ferry provides three meals a day, I'd heard less than stellar things and you are allowed to bring on as much food and drink as you like so I stocked up on snacks and wine. One of the more shocking things I've seen down here is the wide availability and inexpensiveness of alcohol. In a restaurant, alcohol is only marginally more expensive that pop and in most cases, cheaper than juice. At the grocery store, the prices become laughable.

The ferry ride itself was loads of fun and well worth the expense. My cabin consisted of four beds and four lockers, however there were only three of us in the room which made it a little more roomy. The beds were surprinsingly large and had curtains to draw across giving extreme privacy. Bathrooms were large and shared among around 20-30 beds, but the boat was not at capacity so this was never an issue. The food was not particularly amazing, as expected, but it was certainly edible and plentiful. However, the extra snack food was a good call.

Most of our time on the boat was spent on the top deck either outside on the viewing deck or in the pub. We had absolutely fantastic weather throughout the entire ride. Sunny and clear blue skies all the time. Most of the trip is spent in channels along fjords and the boat travels quite slowly so the ride is quite smooth, however because of the geography the boat goes onto the open Pacific, through the Gulf of Pena, for about 12 hours. This stretch is notorious for making people seasick and I was armed with my gravol. I quickly realized it wasn't necessary though as the weather was good and the waves calm. I'd seen and gotten through much worse on my Caribbean cruise last year.

The scenery in the area is absolutely amazing. Like floating through a dreamland. Island after island of rolling green hills and mountains. As well, we saw glimpses of some wildlife. On the second day, the announcer came on with the following message full of urgency - 'Ladies and gentleman, there is a whale on the port side!'. Like a pack of dogs called to attention by a fresh treat, everyone abandoned whatever they were doing and ran to the edge of the boat. You would almost have guessed that the boat was on fire if you hadn't heard the announcement based on the scene at hand. Out into the open water we looked for what seemed like ages and no whale in sight. Just as I began to wonder out loud whether this might be a very good practical joke put on by the crew, a large jet of water flew into the air off in the distance. A whale indeed but we never actually saw the whale, just seemingly random streams of water shooting up into the air for the next several minutes. We got glimpses of many other animals including dolphins, sea lions, and an orca not to mention a plethora of birds and of course the cows. I was hoping they might be planning to use the cows as bait for an orca but it was not meant to be. All the cows arrived safely at their destination where I'm sure they will go on to lead a better life...or be slaughtered.

On top of a lot of great scenery, I met a lot of interesting people and witnessed a fantastic astronomical display. Living downtown Toronto and in fact, having always lived in areas with intense light pollution, I don't get to see the stars much which might explain why I was so thoroughly amazed by the display we got on our second night. With a perfectly cloud free sky and absolutely zero light pollution, we were treated to crystal clear views of the constellations of the southern hemisphere, many of which can never be seen from a vantage point in Canada including the Southern Cross, which navigators used to locate the south pole (as the south pole doesn't have a star directly over it unlike the north pole). I know all this because of Nick, an American university professor of geology and astronomy that I first met in Ushuaia and that I seem to have the fortune of bumping into every other day since then. On this night, he gave a fantastic improptu lecture on the visible constellations for a group of about 10 of us. On top of the distinct constellations, you could see the milky way stretch from one end of the sky to the other - simple amazing, as clear as being in an observatory.

Aside from Robyn and Tom who are great and who it looks like I will be travelling with for the forseeable future, I also met two lumberjacks from Montana, Joe and Mark, who have forever redefined the lumberjack stereotype in my mind. Thanks for lots of laughs guys! One book, 3 days, many bottles of wine and pisco, and god only knows how many different Patagonian channels later and we arrived in Puerto Montt. An hour later, we left Puerto Montt on a bus bound for the island of Chiloe which has wildly defied my expectations. But that's for next time...

Click Here to See More Pictures

March 16th, 2010

There are three ways to get from southern Patagonia back to mainland Chile and Argentina - by air, land or sea. Having already done the air route a couple of times and not being too anxious for the two day bus ride, I opted to travel by sea. The Navimag Ferry was once a strictly commercial route to ferry supplies to and from Patagonia. But someone clearly realized the tourist potential of the trip and the ferry now carries several hundred passengers in addition to it's standard load of supplies and cattle (yes, cattle - there were probably about 100 cows on the boat with us). The passenger part of the boat is small. There are three decks, one for rooms, another for the cafeteria and the top deck is a pub as well as a sightseeing deck. We spent 4 nights and 3 days on the boat which travelled from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt.

Prior to getting on the boat, I had an entire day to kill in Puerto Natales. That morning, at breakfast, I met Robyn and Tom, two friends from the UK who I discovered were also heading for the boat and subsequently, Chiloe, my eventual post-boat destination. It's amazing how quickly and easily you can find travelling companions when you least expect it. Together, we set about doing some pre-boat preparations including much needed laundry after Torres del Paine and grocery shopping. Although the ferry provides three meals a day, I'd heard less than stellar things and you are allowed to bring on as much food and drink as you like so I stocked up on snacks and wine. One of the more shocking things I've seen down here is the wide availability and inexpensiveness of alcohol. In a restaurant, alcohol is only marginally more expensive that pop and in most cases, cheaper than juice. At the grocery store, the prices become laughable.

The ferry ride itself was loads of fun and well worth the expense. My cabin consisted of four beds and four lockers, however there were only three of us in the room which made it a little more roomy. The beds were surprinsingly large and had curtains to draw across giving extreme privacy. Bathrooms were large and shared among around 20-30 beds, but the boat was not at capacity so this was never an issue. The food was not particularly amazing, as expected, but it was certainly edible and plentiful. However, the extra snack food was a good call.

Most of our time on the boat was spent on the top deck either outside on the viewing deck or in the pub. We had absolutely fantastic weather throughout the entire ride. Sunny and clear blue skies all the time. Most of the trip is spent in channels along fjords and the boat travels quite slowly so the ride is quite smooth, however because of the geography the boat goes onto the open Pacific, through the Gulf of Pena, for about 12 hours. This stretch is notorious for making people seasick and I was armed with my gravol. I quickly realized it wasn't necessary though as the weather was good and the waves calm. I'd seen and gotten through much worse on my Caribbean cruise last year.

The scenery in the area is absolutely amazing. Like floating through a dreamland. Island after island of rolling green hills and mountains. As well, we saw glimpses of some wildlife. On the second day, the announcer came on with the following message full of urgency - "Ladies and gentleman, there is a whale on the port side!". Like a pack of dogs called to attention by a fresh treat, everyone abandoned whatever they were doing and ran to the edge of the boat. You would almost have guessed that the boat was on fire if you hadn't heard the announcement based on the scene at hand. Out into the open water we looked for what seemed like ages and no whale in sight. Just as I began to wonder out loud whether this might be a very good practical joke put on by the crew, a large jet of water flew into the air off in the distance. A whale indeed but we never actually saw the whale, just seemingly random streams of water shooting up into the air for the next several minutes. We got glimpses of many other animals including dolphins, sea lions, and an orca not to mention a plethora of birds and of course the cows. I was hoping they might be planning to use the cows as bait for an orca but it was not meant to be. All the cows arrived safely at their destination where I'm sure they will go on to lead a better life...or be slaughtered.

On top of a lot of great scenery, I met a lot of interesting people and witnessed a fantastic astronomical display. Living downtown Toronto and in fact, having always lived in areas with intense light pollution, I don't get to see the stars much which might explain why I was so thoroughly amazed by the display we got on our second night. With a perfectly cloud free sky and absolutely zero light pollution, we were treated to crystal clear views of the constellations of the southern hemisphere, many of which can never be seen from a vantage point in Canada including the Southern Cross, which navigators used to locate the south pole (as the south pole doesn't have a star directly over it unlike the north pole). I know all this because of Nick, an American university professor of geology and astronomy that I first met in Ushuaia and that I seem to have the fortune of bumping into every other day since then. On this night, he gave a fantastic improptu lecture on the visible constellations for a group of about 10 of us. On top of the distinct constellations, you could see the milky way stretch from one end of the sky to the other - simple amazing, as clear as being in an observatory.

Aside from Robyn and Tom who are great and who it looks like I will be travelling with for the forseeable future, I also met two lumberjacks from Montana, Joe and Mark, who have forever redefined the lumberjack stereotype in my mind. Thanks for lots of laughs guys! One book, 3 days, many bottles of wine and pisco, and god only knows how many different Patagonian channels later and we arrived in Puerto Montt. An hour later, we left Puerto Montt on a bus bound for the island of Chiloe which has wildly defied my expectations. But that's for next time...

Click Here to See More Pictures

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Keywords: boat Chile Navimag Patagonia South-America-Trip-2010 sunset