November 15, 2024 - Puerto Chacabuco / Patagonia, Chile - Friday

November 15, 2024 – Friday               Day 51 of this journey 

Puerto Chacabuco, Patagonia, Chile 

We stayed in the Fjords of Chile overnight as we made our way to our next stop. It is Puerto Chacabuco at the far end of the Aysen Fjord. When we awoke this morning, the view was amazing. It wasn’t quite light yet, and we had overcast skies, but WOW. The Andes Mountains rise on either side of the fjord. Covered in dense foliage and abundant waterfalls.

The Expedition Team had planned on putting all their toys in the water today. Before we left the ship for our tour, the Expedition Leader came on the PA to say the local Harbor Master had decided that we could not put the toys in the water due to foul weather coming in this afternoon. 

We have an early morning tour that will take us inland to the capital city of this region. We will visit Coyhaique (coy-hi-kay), after stopping at the Rio Simpson National Reserve. And at some point, we will be provided with a “snack”. 

Our guide, Daniel, is a local and immediately starts educating us about “Patagonia”. I’ve heard the term “Patagonia” for a very long time. I just didn’t realize how much territory it covers. This region is very sparsely populated. They are very rich in aquaculture, farming a good portion of the farm raised salmon in the world. The water here is very cold, both from the glacial runoff and off-shore is the Humboldt Current. 

We literally sailed to the middle of the Andes Mountain Range. Mountain peaks surround us. Rivers are running high as this is the beginning of their summer and the weather is warming up substantially. We had a high today around 50 F. There is standing water everywhere. On average, they receive rain at least every other day throughout the year, but not a lot of snow. 

As we drive along the Rio Aysen, and the Rio Simpson, we see waterfalls everywhere. Some are only trickles, some are gushing. Some you see starting way high up near the peaks and ridges. Others seem to appear out of nowhere. We have some overcast and drizzle, so the clouds float in and out and around the peaks. It’s Spring on this end of our earth and there are lots of things in bloom. Wild fuchsia, fire trees, lupine, iris, scotch broom. With the fire trees covered in red blooms, it looks more like fall in the northern hemisphere. The scotch broom and the lupine are considered invasive. We also saw a lot of all these things yesterday in Castro. If the ground isn’t covered by water, it is covered by a thick green grass. Lots of livestock (sheep, ducks, cattle, the biggest chickens I have ever seen). Most people living in this region are self-sufficient.

A Firetree/bush

 

Our 30-minute stop near the main square of Coyhaique was kind of a non-event, but it allowed us to stretch our legs. We then headed for our snack. After driving back towards our ship for about an hour, we pulled off the 2-lane highway, onto a “tourist road”. Then we pulled off the tourist road on to a mud track. The bus parked and everybody got off and walked toward a wooden building. This is a restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. It is about 2:00 pm. Breakfast was a long time ago. Like we’re going to go hungry or something.

Our venue for our snack

I never remember to take a picture before I start eating.

A couple of ducklings in the yard

Our “snack” was a full meal. Local wine and Pisco Sours were served, then each person was given a platter that had a skewer of chunks of beef and chicken. There was also a skewer of fruit, 2 cheese empanada, 2 meat empanadas, a piece of bread with a bowl of salmon spread on the table. Everything was excellent. Yesterday’s meal was very good. For us, this was far superior. 

We arrived back at the dock to tender back to the ship. The wind is really blowing. We are kind of glad that our Special Ops Boat ride for later this afternoon has been cancelled. 

We had reservations at the Restaurant but weren’t very hungry. We each had a couple of appetizers and called it good.

The clouds lifted a bit and we had a few moments of sunshine

And a gorgeous double rainbow

And more wonderful scenery

The Captain has said it will be rough sailing again tonight as we have to go out into the Pacific to get to the next area of scenic sailing in the fjords. In a couple of days, we should see glaciers.