Valentines Day

Wednesday 14 February

It was a real struggle to get up at 05.30 this morning – it was still dark, and looking out of the window – felt quite cool (we’re not allowed to say “chilly” here!). But eager beavers that we were, we were the first to breakfast – yet another buffet with a reasonable selection of the usual foods – but 06.15 is just too early for some of us to think about food.

We all met in the lobby just after 07.00 and were transported by minibuses to the port in Puerta Natales – less than minutes away. Mike wasn’t coming with us today, as he had to sort out when exactly we were leaving and the transport to El Calafate. There were a few boats in the harbour, but we had to wait for another to arrive, that was supposedly bigger, faster and more modern than the other tourist boat there. We watched it slowly (!) weave its way through the waves of the fjord towards us, while we stood in the cold morning air, everyone adding more layers, as the wait lengthened - it was only about twenty minutes, but as the nip in the air attacked fingers, toes and noses, it seemed much longer. The boat, true to what we had been told, was more modern looking than its twin at the dockside – its paint was newer anyway.

We were guided to the bottom deck of the boat where there was a series of seats around bench tables, divided into two compartments by a glass partition – ours near the bow of the boat – with enough seats for us all and a few to spare – and a larger compartment further back which was eventually filled with Spanish and French tourists – and their wayward children (they ran around the deck, encouraged by their father). We all settled ourselves comfortably and waited for the engines to roar – in vain – as we had to wait for another large party to fit into the other tour boat (the one that was smaller, slower and older), and everyone was safely aboard.

To a few cheers, the engine finally revved, and after a few reversing movements we were chugging away from Puerta Natales, along the centre of the fjord known as the Senoret Canal. We passed our hotel – it really did look like a prison from the outside – painted black, long straight, two storey arms reaching out from the centre hub, with large black funnels, hooked over at the ends (air vents?), in a large patch of open meadow. Why does it have to look so hideous from the outside? – it doesn’t fit in with the gaggle of brightly coloured houses and hotels that surround the port.

About fifteen minutes into our journey, we passed a long low red roofed building at Puerto Bories that now acts as the local museum. It was built in 1913 and was once the largest meat packing factory in South America – all the meat from Patagonian Argentina and Chile used to pass through this plant, to be refrigerated or frozen, before being shipped off all over the world. Unfortunately, the business was moved to Santiago, and consequently, the economy of the area declined. After about an hour, we reached the Fiordo Eberhard, where cattle ranching in this region was begun in 1887 by a German, Herr Eberhard. Cattle farming has now become the most important livelihood in this region, both for milk and meat. The fjord then becomes known as the Fiorda Ultima Esperanza. Along the way we passed several farms, one of these being the Estancia Margot (where we would stop for lunch on our return)

Only a little further on we passed a colony of Imperial cormorants – hundreds of majestic black and white birds, looking exactly like penguins as they sat on the rocks and islands just out from the bank, with their backs to the water, but when they fly they become sleek aerodynamic “jet-engines” skimming just above the water, in their quest for food.

Further up the fjord we were not so lucky at finding either sea lions or condors. The weather was still overcast and cold, with a biting wind blowing the full length of the fjord. The sea lions love the sun, so that they can lie and bask on the rocks, while the condors need thermal air currents – pockets of air eddying round and rising up the sides of the mountains - so that they can launch themselves into mid air. They are huge birds and it takes a good current of air to help them soar along the valleys. Today we had neither sun nor thermals. But we continued on, the waterway winding its course through the peaks – many with patches of snow on top. The sun was trying to penetrate the clouds, casting a wan light over cliffs, as they reached straight down into the fjord.

After almost three and a half hours, we reach our goal – the two glaciers – running down either side of a mountain over 2,000 metres above sea level. The first glacier – the Monte Balmaceda, was a thick tongue of ice, smooth at the top and “creviced” at the bottom, flowing down from the top to within about 10 metres of the water. We were amazed at how “blue” the ice was – we know now where the paint companies get their colour “ice blue” from – the front of the tongue of ice was an intense pale blue, where the ice was compacted so densely, that light was reflected back as a colour. We estimated that it stood at around ten metres tall at the front line, a huge thick tongue that now unfortunately was receding back up the mountain – in the last five years it has receded as much as ten meters. The boat slowed its engines so that we could all take photos, and gasp as the sheer size and majesty of this glacier. It was then time to make our way a little further downstream, where we turned a bend and found a simple wooden jetty, with plenty of room for us to “park”. We all clambered off, and followed the appointed leader up a narrow gritty track following the shoreline of a lake – which fed into the main fjord through a small channel. The track took us up and along the side of the mountain, the whole length of the lake, to the Serrano Glacier – which runs down the mountain on the opposite side to the first glacier. As we passed the lake we saw icebergs – from small “cotton wool” clumps of ice to much larger formations, slowly melting in the extremely cold waters – we could see just a small part floating on the surface and a large area disappearing under the water – seem to remember something about only 1/7th is above the waterline. We could see huge cracks to one side at the front, and our guide thought this would be another iceberg in a matter of weeks – just breaking away and floating down the lake! While we were there we twice heard huge resounding cracking sounds coming from the top of the mountain, and small amounts of ice fell metres down the side – the result of the sun shining on the top of the mountain each day. It was very eerie, but we all wanted to see an avalanche!! This was another spectacular example of glaciation. Five yeas ago this glacier had stretched to where we were standing today, a hundred or so metres from its current position and twenty years ago, it covered the whole lake - about an extra kilometre in length.

All too soon it was time to retrace our steps along the track – other tourists were coming in the opposite direction, and sometimes passing was difficult – foreigners do not wait and pass at convenient places – they just keep striding forward and expect everyone else to get out of the way – not at all English! On board the boat we slowly chugged back to the estancia we had passed on the way. Our guides served us all with “pisco sours” with nibbles of mixed nuts and raisins, before we docked for lunch – by now it was about 14.30 and everyone was feeling more than “peckish”. There was a large square building, laid out with tables and chairs to seat a couple of hundred persons. We were shown to one of the tables for our group, and the waiters hovered with red wine and water. We ate mixed vegetable and rice soup before a large iron skillet with a griddle on top, came loaded with chunks and ribs of roasted lamb, chicken, chorizo and frankfurter sausages. Large boiled potatoes were cunningly placed around the edge to keep the meat in place, and separate huge dishes of salad arrived – about three to a table. Jack, husband of Virginia, started serving the meat to everyone, and about half way through, two more large vats of meat and potatoes arrived. The portions were enormous, but the lamb was “melt in the mouth” – Colin was in heaven! Dessert was more tinned fruit salad – strange when they grow so much fresh fruit, that the tinned variety is served so often. And the wine kept flowing. We wandered around a meadow full of summer flowers like daisies, buttercups and sweet williams, as well as many I didn’t know by name, before returning to the boat for tea and coffee. Everyone was now feeling really sated, and an afternoon siesta would have been nice. It took another couple of hours to return to the dock and meet the waiting minibuses to return us to the hotel. The scenery was just as spectacular traveling in reverse. Sweet and chocolate biscuits were provided along with yet more tea and coffee along the way – how were we going to fit in dinner? Mike was waiting at the hotel to tell us the bad news that we would be leaving this hotel on Friday after all, to go to El Calafate, not on Saturday as on our registration cards, but that we would not leave until the afternoon.

We just had time to write a few postcards and change for dinner, before meeting our guides for tomorrow, who explained the options for tomorrow’s itinerary. When we arrived in the bar, Mike had a bunch of singly wrapped roses, in assorted colours and ribbons, which he gave to each man to present to his lady for Valentine’s Day – he was so sweet – Barbara was quite overcome as she said John had never remembered Valentine’s Day at home. Mike also had flowers for Monica and Irene, the two ladies in our group traveling without partners. Due to our shortened stay, it was decided that we should visit the Torres de Paine National Park tomorrow – some for serious hiking (about seven hours), some for shorter hikes (about 4 hours) and the rest of us for a tour of the park in the minibus, stopping to take a few shorter walks to see the scenery. While these decisions were being made, more drinks arrived (it was a free bar afterall) and appetizers of such things as scallops wrapped in bacon, mini samosas filled with vegetables and meat, small toasts with chopped salmon and tomato – all very delicious.

By the time we reached the restaurant – just up a tiled slope, which could be quite slippery – we were beyond worrying that we seemed to have done nothing but eat all day – and enjoyed a mixed cheese salad – cubes of goats, cows and sheeps cheeses – followed by what we finally decided was thick slices of pork tenderloin – about four or five of these each – with a creamy rice and potato mixture. The dessert was chocolate mousse. We stayed and chatted around the table and bar for a while before returning to our rooms – me to make some notes for the blog and Colin to sleep. I am getting way behind with the blog again – but each day is so full of activities, there’s no time to catch up.