Voyage to Southern Patagonia - part 2

MJC looking pleased to be parked by South America´s longest glacier.  More below.

Spooky wreck of a Greek ship which was stranded here in the 1960s.  The rather pathetic crew attempted an insurance scam.  They had already secretly sold their cargo of sugar in Uruguay but intended to sink the ship in this channel and claim insurance on both the cargo and the vessel.  The ship hit the rocks, but didn´t sink.  Crew ended up, red faced, in jail.

The village of Puerto Eden - one of the most remote communities in Chile.   There are no roads to it or in it.  Just wooden walkways.  There are 180 inhabitants and nobody else for about 100 kilometres in any direction. 

Everything and everybody comes in and out by our Navimag ferry, which drops anchor twice a week.

Glacier Pio XI.  It´s 64 kilometres long.  That´s from its origin, up in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field to here at the end of this fjord.  Glacier is a few kilometres wide here.

It´s one of the very few glaciers in the world which is advancing rather than shrinking.  Pio XI is the longest in Latin America and the third longest in the world

This place is no further south and no closer to the South Pole than London is to the North.  We have a lot to thank the Gulf Stream for.

Not the last you have seen of glaciers I assure you....

 Last morning briefing about our route through the channels and passes to Puerto Natales, arriving in the  afternoon.  This guide was good at the talks, lectures and onboard bingo calling.  His two colleagues were definitely Madge Allsopps to his Dame Edna.  The lecture theatre doubled as the restaurant, where food of a very poor standard was served to us.  ¿Where does the US $1000 go, one has to wonder?

Our ship squeezes through the narrowest point on our voyage.  The 80 metre gap at Paso White.

It was jolly windy.  You can see MJC and lovely Dutch duo Mijntje and Rachel battling to stand up.

Our destination Puerto Natales.  The wind was so strong that the ship had to circle around for about an hour before it was safe to dock.

Voyage to Southern Patagonia - part 1

A Black Browed Albatross - one of our companion species for the 1000 kilometre, 3-day boat journey to Puerto Natales in far southern Chilean Patagonia, starting from Puerto Montt.

Admittedly the colourful fishing boats might suggest that Puerto Montt is more picturesque than it really is.  But cheer up MJC for goodness´ sakes.  You will soon being talking to the nice Swiss lady in the lime green waterproof and seeing marine wildlife, windswept islands, glaciers and fabulous mountains from the channels and bays ahead.

Dramatic changes of weather.  Photo taken off the coast of Chiloe island.

If you are not impressed by our cabin, at least you´ve been spared a shot of the shared bathroom. Yuck.

One of many Southern Giant Petrels along the way.  The rare white form of this species is called a white nellie

Black Browed Albatross taking flight, wingspan 2 metres.  And this is only large enough for them to be categorised as a smaller albatross or mollymawk. 

Magellanic penguins. We also saw sealions and several dolphins (Common and Peal´s) but  the dolphins were too fleeting to photograph.

Entering the Bay of Anna Pink.  No idea who Ms Pink was.

 Here, about to emerge onto the open Pacific for 7 hour stretch.  The air and surface were thick with shearwaters.  Exhiliarating to see so many of them, thousands.

The bow of the Evangelista crashing into Pacific swell as we prepare to cruise southwards through the night.

The Dog and the Pig

We came across these two rapscallions playing together in the street.  The dog would chase the piglet in a circle.  Then they switched and the piglet chased the dog.   The piglet also jumped up and pecked the dog on the face.  I cannot express how heart-warming this vision was on what was otherwise a relatively dull day.
Ms Feachem and I are now working up a Disney-style movie script featuring these two (Hugo and Evo), a guinea pig, an armadillo, an alpaca and an escape on the back of a condor.  The baddie will be an Augusto Pinochet lookalikey farmer who wants to turn Evo into chorizo.
Other ideas for characters and plotlines welcome.

This was the back-drop for Hugo and Evo´s games.  Cochamo, a fishing village which the Rough Guide to Chile describes as beautiful, on a fjord known as Estaurio Reloncavi.  You can see Volcan Yates at the far end, under cloud.

MJC mounted in the Mountains

MJC receiving last minute rein-handling instructions from equestrian maestro Rudolfo.  As well as being a Chilean rodeo rider, Rudolfo is the owner of Huepil-Malal stables in the northern Lake District, not far from Puçon.

Rudolfo´s spurs.  Animal lovers, contain yourselves.  He just gently brushes the horse´s flanks with them.  When Rudolfo walks, he sounds like a wind chime.

Alas we were not allowed to wear spurs.  But we did have sort of shin-chaps.

Michael on his horse, called Pasta (apparently), with Rudolfo´s colleague Paola.  Paola made sure our horses did not gallop and throw us off.  The peaks of Huequerhue National Park are in the background.

My lovely horse, on the left, is called Recuerdo (Memory). 

 Gracias Rudolfo!

The Monkey Puzzle Forests (updated)

A forest of monkey puzzle trees (Araucaria araucana) after snowfall.  These have given us the biggest botanical buzz of the trip so far.

Magnificent coniferous survivors from Jurassic times, when they dominated forests the world over.   In the Chilean Lake District, they were growing on hill tops above 1000 metres. 

Before I have only ever seen them growing in front of semis in suburban southeast England - a setting which utterly diminishes them.

In nature and en masse, they are stunning.  They are huge when fully grown.  Strands of pale green lichen festoon their trunks.

Pictures taken in Huerquehue National Park and Cañi Ecological Reserve, both not far on the bus from Puçon.

The indigenous people of this part of Chile are the Mapuche.  Traditionally their culture not only includes these funeral carvings, but also spiritual beliefs about and practical uses of the araucaria tree.  Uses include eating the large nuts in the tree´s cones.  This was explained and demonstrated to us by our somewhat distant guide Manuel (whose legs you can see in third photo down).  Shame he didn´t offer us any.  So we can´t tell you what they taste like.

Chilean Lake District - Volcano with Snow

Our latest climb.  Volcan Villarrica, one of Chile´s most active volcanoes.  View from the town of Puçon.

It´s on with the crampons.  The smoking summit is 2840 metres above sea level.  But we skipped a bit and took the ski lift up to 1300 m.  From where you get views like these to other volcanoes and lakes in the region.

From the top of the ski lift, it was 3 hours of trudge up steep slopes of snow and ice.

No dramas for someone with a helmet and a hat.

Our group, led by yellow-helmeted Reuben of Aguaventura (highly recommended), before the final 45 minutes to Volcan Villarrica´s crater rim.

Inside the crater.  Annoyingly, the level of the lava lake is too low right now for the molten rock to be seen.  Only two years ago, it was well within view from here and, on occasion, splattering onlookers. 

So benign was Villarrica on our crater visit that I couldn´t even smell the fumes that were belching out.  It was silent too.  The last eruption was in 1984.

The main hazard for the people living around the volcano when it does erupt are lahars - giant mudslides created when lava meets and melts the vast sheets of ice and snow on the volcano.  During an eruption in the 1950s, many were killed in a local village when a lahar struck in the middle of the night. 

Fantastic views through the clouds to one of the larger lakes in the Puçon area.

MJC and rest of group getting suited up for our rapid mode of descent. 

On your rear and a plastic tray, it takes no time to get back to the base of the mountain.  We frequently spiralled out of control on the way down but it was FANTASTIC.

"One of the best things I have done in my life", MJC under the clouds near Volcan Villarrica´s snowline.