Cruising Southern Chile

One week left to go!!! After just a tick over 10 months of travel, it´s hard to believe that we are so close to the end now. Of course we had to finish our journey in style. So after a quick day in the Chilean capital of Santiago, we hopped on a 12 hour bus to Puerto Montt in Central Chile. There we met up with our home for the next 3 days - the mighty Navimag Puerto Eden Ferry.

The ferry is a combined freight ship/passenger ferry (capacity 225 people) that would take us close to some of the Southern most points in the world. Given that we were suddenly a lot further south than we had been, we were quickly forced to abandon the shorts and t-shirts in favour of our jeans, jumpers, wollen socks, beanies, and jackets....bummer.

For the most part, the trip was a pleasant cruise through the Patigonia channels. The weather certainly didn´t comply with blue skies and sunshine, but it couldn´t spoil the stunning mountains and waterways the followed us throughout the journey.

The facilities on board were surprisingly comfortable and generous. We were served 3 massive and delicious meals a day, had regular informative sessions about the local areas and people, and were even shown the odd movie on their big screen. We also met some great people (mainly Aussies !!) and had some intensive card games along the way. Lyds and I also shared a little 4 bed room with a really interesting American guy - Jay, who proved to be a great roomate.

One of the great aspects of the voyage was that for most of the trip, passengers were able to visit the bridge and get a close up view of the Captain and crew at work. Considering the regular freezing howling winds we had, it was nice to be able to watch the scenery go by from the warmth and comfort of the best viewing spot on the ferry.

Very relaxing to say the least. The end of day 2 however was a different story. For a short 12 hour stint of the journey we were forced to leave the channel and traverse the open seas. This started about 6pm and didn´t end until 6am the next morning. The boat was soon travelling through a solid 5 metre swell, and heaving from side to side (despite it´s size). This caused all sorts of fun for everyone. Lyds and I had some pretty strong sea sickness pills, so we were both fine, but it was amusing to see only about 50% of the passengers eating at dinner time.

It´s safe to say that it was pretty difficult to sleep that night, particularly given that we were being tossed up and down and from side to side in our beds. It was worse for me given that I was in the top bunk. Still, with the help of tucking ourselves in as tightly into the sheets as possible, we survived safely to the morning. We arrived at breakfast to find almost everyone swapping stories about sicknesses and destroyed rooms. Some classic tales. All up a fantastic and memorable cruise.

So now we are sitting in the town on Punta Arenas awaiting out flight to take us back to Santiago. In 2 days we will be on our next flight to Easter Island for the last few days of this incredible trip.

Here are some pics from our trip....

As always, click here if you can´t see the album CrusingSouthernChile