January 27 to February 4, 2014 - Chile to Antarctica

Monday, January 27, we arrived in Puerto Chacabuco on schedule. This is our third tender port in a row. The water was relatively calm and the ride was uneventful. I may not have mentioned that the tenders have all been replaced since our last cruise on Prinsendam. They are no more comfortable, but they are dry and fast. Tendering is almost enjoyable.

In 2012 we took a tour to visit interior Patagonia. This time we opted to use the local bus to go to Aysen. This is the real town for this stop. Chacabuco is a small town that houses workers for the fish processing and the port. All services seem to be in Aysen.

Upon leaving the tender, it started to rain very lightly. As we walked toward the port shuttle that would take us out of harm’s way in the dock area, a beautiful rainbow appeared over the ship. We could see both ends of it, and the color bands were super. The rain stopped before we got to the shuttle.

The shuttle dropped us at the information and craft center. There were two people, who spoke little English, at the tour desk. With some difficulty we learned where to catch the bus to Aysen. The fare was another matter. We would need pesos, and we were told various amounts from 500 to 1500 pesos. It turned out to be 500 pesos or $1 each.

After a 25 minute ride we were in Aysen. This quiet town had a very long main street with businesses on both sides. This provided our entertainment for the day. We visited food, shoe, clothing and hardware stores. We dodged bicycles (they ride on the sidewalks) and dogs. The church was locked, but we photographed the exterior. It was on the main square, as is the custom.

We walked the square and started back toward the bus stop. As we passed the library we decided to see if they had wi-fi available. The only internet café we saw in town was closed. When we asked the librarian, who spoke no English, she kindly took my iPad and logged me on. We spent an hour cleaning up our gmail accounts.

The library collection was very small, but well organized. The building was small but provided a children’s area and an internet corner. It was actually very nice, and the people were very gracious. We were the only ones from the ship to visit it, and we were somewhat of an attraction, ourselves.

As we walked back to the bus, we found an upscale craft store with nice woven goods. We did not have enough pesos, but the dollar exchange rate was reasonable, so we parted with some.

The bus was packed for our ride back to Chacabuco. The many stops along the way gave us some insight into the lifestyle of the local residents. It is a simple life, and everyone seems happy. They all seem to have dogs, too. Dogs were everywhere. That is something else we had to dodge on main street.

The quick tender ride back home allowed plenty of time to prepare for the evening’s formal night. I was even able to get my hair cut. This is the first time we can recall having a formal night scheduled for a port day. They are normally on sea days. The theme was penguins. The hype is building for Punta Arenas, where the first penguin tours will be available.

Tuesday, January 28,  was a sea day. As usual we attended several lectures. One really stood out. This was on the history of the Bandoneon. This instrument is a relative of the accordion and the concertina. It is used in tango music. The musician places the bellows on his knee and uses gravity to open the bellows as the drops the ends with the keys/buttons. Each button plays two notes, one as the bellows open and a different one as the bellows close. Adolfo, the young bandoneon player, was very proficient. As he played samples with the accompaniment of a guitarist, Juan and Karla, our tango instructors, performed the tango. Tango has been described as the vertical expression of a horizontal desire. It truly is a beautiful and sensual dance, when artfully performed. Juan and Carla knocked it out of the park.

Today was scenic cruising in the Chilean fjords. They are beautiful and in many ways similar to the fjords of Norway. But they are no match for those.

In the evening we left the fjords and transited the Darwin Channel to get into the Pacific. A short time at sea led us back to the protection of the inside channels. We headed toward Amalia Glacier. We will arrive early tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 29, we arrived at Amalia as scheduled.

It was quite early when I caught my first glimpse. The weather was good, but it is getting colder. This was the first time I needed a jacket. The wind was calm, and the temperature was cool. It was overcast, but the view was still good. I am sure Chile is quite proud of Amalia. And they should be, just as we are quite proud of Alaska’s glaciers. In a contest Alaska would win hands down. Nonetheless, Amalia is pretty to look at, and ranks high among the glaciers of Chile.

We retraced our track to the channel and continued south with scenic cruising. The highlight of the day was glacier alley.

Her we saw many glaciers. None were as large as Amalia, in many ways they exceeded her in beauty. We did not return to the Pacific. We were not supposed to. Last time we had to in order to outrun a severe storm that was bearing down on us. For that reason we missed the fjords of Chile.

After glacier alley, we entered The Straights of Magellan. Just as we entered, we saw a sailboat of moderate anchored in a well protected bay to starboard, right, of the channel. The wind was blowing vey hard and they were apparently waiting for a better weather window before venturing south. As we continued we marveled at the beauty of our passage.

Thursday, January 30, our arrival in Punta Arenas, Chile was right on schedule. This was a good thing for us because we had an all day tour to Torres Del Paines National Park. This is one of the hallmarks of Patagonia. In 2012 we went to see the penguins, and had a great time. This time we decided to treat ourselves to something special. It truly was special.

We left the ship at 7:15 on the first tender, and boarded a bus to the airport. There were 19 of us. 30 minutes later we were divided into two groups, 10 in one and 9 in the other. Then we were led out to two small planes.

Alice and I were in the group of 10. We were last to board and got the front seats. Alice was behind the captain, and I was behind the copilot.

The door closed. The copilot advised us of the emergency exits, told us to keep our seatbelts fastened, and said in 40 minutes we would arrive at Puerto Natales.

The captain started the two engines. He was instructing the copilot in the various aspects of the instrument panel. He waited for the smaller plane to leave, and then we took off. The flight was very smooth at 8,000 feet. This was just above the cloud level. In 35 minutes we descended through the clouds, and there, right in front of us, was the runway. The landing was perfect. The captain wished us a good day. When I asked him if he would take us back, he said yes. They would spend the day in town. Not drinking I hoped.

We boarded another bus after the other plane arrived. We took off second, but we were a faster and newer aircraft. I wish I had asked what kind of craft it was. Our guide, Christian, was very informative and personable. That was a good thing because we were with him for the next seven hours.

The drive to the park took 3 hours. Much of this was on gravel. We passed through many valleys created by glaciers. We learned about the large ranches along the way. Then we saw the Torres.

Even from a great distance they were awesome, but they were still shrouded in low clouds. As we got closer the clouds would blow away and then return. The Torres just kept getting more amazing. We could not take our eyes off of them, even when we stopped to view local wildlife.

We wound ever closer, stopping several times for pictures. At one point the wind was blowing so hard that it was difficult to standl and hold the camera still. This was near a place where the road crossed between lakes. A while ago two tour buses were blown over by the wind as they crossed this point.

We continued on and came to a river. We took a side trail to a viewpoint overlooking raging cascades from the glacier melt. The water was milky with glacial silt.

I failed to mention that the lakes were different shades of green, blue and turquoise. These colors were absolutely brilliant. We came to yet another lake.

This was right near the base of the mountains. Across a footbridge form the parking area was a nice restaurant where we were served lunch. After a Pisco sour, a salad of hearts of palm, a main course of lamb and vegetables and a dessert of flan, we returned to the coach for the ride back.

When we got to the airport in Puerto Natales, Christian called the pilots. They arrived shortly. We were to board to the same seats we had for the trip here. Again the captain was instructing the copilot. This time he had the copilot actually do everything. He started the engines, checked the instruments, watched the other plane leave, and then he taxied to the runway. In no time he had us in the air. The captain told him to cruise above the clouds again. This time that meant 12,000 feet. After a bit of turbulence things smoothed out and we had a quick flight, 35 minutes, back to Punta Arenas. As we descended toward the airport the wind was blowing very hard. We did a little rocking and rolling. I could see the runway. We were approaching perpendicular to it. The wind was blowing us around quite a bit. The captain was explaining to the young man, in Spanish, what to do and gesturing with his hands. The gist of it was that he was to continue the descent perpendicular to the runway and at the prescribed altitude do a quick right turn and go strait in. It worked perfectly. The landing was a bit hard, but we have had worse on jets.

A half hour bus ride got us to the port at 6 PM. After a brief tour of the shops at the port, we returned to the tender pier and caught one of the last tenders back home. We missed our dinner seating, but we had a light supper in the Lido and caught the 8:15 entertainment.

What an exhilarating day!

Friday, January 31, we continued through the straights to the Beagle and our approach to Ushuaia, Argentina. In 2012 the wind was so strong that we were unable to dock. The captain anchored, and attempted to start tender service. The sea was too rough. The coast guard closed the port, and we were cleared to leave. This was our first missed port.

This time we glided up to the pier on smooth seas in a gentle breeze.

We boarded a coach for our tour, Drive to Tierra del Fuego. It was an interesting drive through the city into the national park. The forest was quite dense. The road was gravel, but smooth. We stopped at two lakes, a very nice visitors’ center and finally the bay. This marked the end of the road, the southern most point in the world to which one could drive.

The weather was nice, but the scenery was no match for the day before. Torres del Paines had spoiled us. Not many pictures were taken today.

We returned to the city at 6 PM. Since the all aboard was 7:30 we stayed in town and walked the main street. It was very interesting with shops of every kind. We found a good book on Ushuaia and paid for it in dollars. The exchange rate was satisfactory. We did not need to change any dollars into local currency. All of the shops seemed to offer the same rate. While the rate was good for us, it was probably even better for the locals since, Argentina had recently devalued its currency.

We returned to Prinsendam at 7:20. Good to be home. Most of the Antarctica expedition vessels docked near us had already departed. We had to wait for the small cruise ship docked in front of us to leave before we could cast off. We returned to the Beagle Channel and headed off toward Cape Horn.

Saturday, February 1, was a sea day. We attended lectures presented by the expedition team. We believe they came aboard in Ushuaia. Each member has a long history of involvement with Antarctica. We are learning about the history of the continent, its geology, its birds and the whales.

The sea is almost calm. The waves and swell are not causing much rolling or pitching at all. The contrast to last time is incredible.

Sunday, February 2, I woke up early, and was in the Crows Nest for sunrise at 5:15. It was beautiful. We were headed to Palmer Station, one of three American bases on Antarctica. The sea was very smooth. As I watched for the first signs of Antarctica the sun got brighter. Suddenly whales were appearing in front of the ship. These were large Humpback Whales. One other person had joined me in the Crows Nest. Even from12 decks up on the ship these creatures were clearly large. Different pods fascinated for a long time. Then the peaks of Antarctica started to appear. The sun glistened on the snow and ice. I even saw a small ship rounding an island to port.

The room began to fill as we got nearer to Palmer. The narration started over the ship’s PA system. It was helpful to learn what we were seeing. Alice joined me.

Suddenly a new pod of Humbacks broke the surface just ahead. They were feeding, and came to the surface with mouths wide open to gather in the krill that is such an important part of their diet. We watched in awe. We would see a mouth, a back, a tail and sometimes a blow. This went on for many minutes. Amazing!

As the ship slowed we could see the zodiac coming from Palmer Station. This carried the eight member team that would lecture us on what goes on here. Their 9:30 talk was excellent. After it we went outside to take in the views. We had started cruising along Anvers Island where Palmer Station is located. We were heading down toward a narrow channel between high peaks. Icebergs were all around us. Some of the bergs had penguins on them. Others had seals. Still others were unoccupied. All of them captivated us.

We continued through Lamaire Channel. This is possible less than 10% of the time for a ship our size.

The rest of the day was like this. We were traversing places we could not get near the last time. The sun was shining. The wind was calm, and the temperature was in the low 40’s. Sunburn was a risk. At night the ship returned to Bismark Straight where there was no ice. We were still close to Anvers Island. We did large lazy circles in the sea all night. This kept us out of harm’s way. The sea state was calm.

Alice and I were ecstatic. In 2012 The weather was so bad we could not board the folks from Palmer until our second day here. The first day was spent circling in the fog and blizzard. The second day was still rough, overcast and cold with low visibility. Again our transiting of channels was extremely limited. This passage could not have been more opposite. We cannot believe what the captain accomplished today. This is already better than the entire 3 days we spent here last time.

Monday, February 3, we awoke to a flat sea, bright sunshine and low wind. Unbelievable! We headed back to traverse channels and bays. The number of icebergs, penguins and whales was astounding.

At one point there were two whales cavorting ahead of the ship. The captains stopped the ship to see what they would do. I was standing near the bow on the port side as they turned toward us. As they neared the ship they slowed and passed us almost touching the ship, while under water. I watched as they inspected the ship directly below me. I could clearly see their fins and then their tails as they dove away from us.

Then two whales swam under the ship from starboard to port. They surfaced just beyond where I was standing.

The whole day went like this. The sky remained blue and the sun shone brightly.

This made observing the landmarks pointed out by the expedition team quite easy. We reluctantly came inside for lunch and dinner.

At the end of the day we again went out to sea for protection against stray icebergs. We spent another night doing lazy circles.

Tuesday, February 4, brought a temperature of 36, high winds and snow. It was overcast and bitter. We were passing many bergs with penguins aboard. At one point I was at the stern, when I saw a berg with many penguins aboard. Alice and I learned some time ago that, as the ship passed, these little birds would become agitated and leave the iceberg. I hurried forward to get some pictures. That was a good thing because as I started taking pictures a penguin in the middle of the pack ran away from the ship and dove over the side. All of the others followed in short order. The only evidence of their presence was the waste on the surface of the berg.

We were passing some very large icebergs, when the narrator announced that we would soon be approaching one that was over 100 feet tall and 4,200 feet long. The captain would pass along the side of this one. Of course, he would keep us at a safe distance. And so he did. We lingered here for quite a while. I could not guess how many pictures were taken here.

We encountered sea ice for the first time. It blocked our passage to an interior bay, so we headed of to another target. Again, as we approached, pack ice blocked our way. We now started cruising toward Elephant Island where Shackleton’s crew over-wintered, while he sailed South Georgia Island for help.

In mid afternoon the captain informed us that further attempts to avoid pack ice on our way to Elephant Island meant we would arrive after dark. This would be of no benefit, so he changed course. We were now heading north to our next port, Puerto Madryn, Argentina. We will arrive there on Friday.