Giant Waves and Mylodon Caves

Giant Waves and Mylodon Caves
Puerto Natales, Chile

Puerto Natales, Chile

When we were planning our travels in Chile we had completely dismissed the idea of going to Patagonia, as it was too cold, it was out of season and we just didn’t fancy it. That is until we were reminded by some other travellers about the Navimag Ferry that travels for 3 days through the fjords of Patagonia. Whilst you have probably worked out by now we like to get to places in the simplest easiest and cheapest way, unless there is a slightly off the tourist path way to get there. In the deep midwinter Navimag Ferry was exactly that! In the summer tourists pay thousands to travel on this ferry, which is just a very basic cargo ferry. We paid just $100 each as we booked the cheapest room with no bathroom and no window and hoped that we would get lucky as we had read reviews that said you get upgraded in the low season.

Our bus from Santiago was about as good as night buses get, after we got on the conductor came around, got us out of our seats and converted them practically into flat beds, which were perfectly comfy for a nights sleep. What wasn’t quite so conducive for a nights sleep was the alarm that went off every time the driver exceeded the 100kmph speed limit. Aside from the alarm we arrived in Puerto Montt refreshed and ready to head to our boat. The only problem was that it was 8:00am and we could not board the boat until 2:00pm. We sat in the freezing ferry terminal for an hour whilst we waited for the office to open to check in and after checking in and being upgraded to the best cabin on the boat with a window and an ensuite bathroom which in high season costs over $1500 we were ecstatic and decided to treat ourselves. So we wondered down the road from the ferry terminal and found a little hotel and with my poor Spanish managed to negotiate a day rate for a room of just £10 so we could shower, relax, nap and watch TV in a warm bed for the morning until it was time to board the ferry. Best £10 we have spent in a long time.

On our way to the ferry we found a little store and stocked up on chocolate and crisps in case the food on the ferry was terrible and we were ready to board. We walked into the terminal and found just one other lone tourist and a handful of locals and truck drivers waiting to get on the boat. With a capacity of 250, there were 13 of us, and of that 13 just 3 of us were tourists.

We were incredibly lucky in that our sailing did have a tour guide, not because there was a lot for him to point out but that he was the only English speaker on the boat and provided us with all the info we needed as to what was happening and when.

The first afternoon on the boat was beyond freezing, until the boat got moving the heating wasn’t running and so we put on all our warm clothes and got into bed. Typically because of bad weather that was rolling in our departure was delayed and we had a long wait until it started to warm up.

We soon discovered that our supplies of chocolate and crisps were definitely not needed as the portions of food for the 3 meals a day were huge. I would have been happy with the side salad, bread and fruit, but every day the chef concocted some vegetarian specialty for me that was big enough to feed me for 3 days. We certainly had no complaints about the food on board.

The sailing was really nice and relaxing, we would spend our days relaxing in our cabin watching the world go by, hanging out on the deck (for as long as we could handle the cold) and eating the monstrous size meals we were given.

There was however one night of the journey that we were not looking forward to, when we had to leave the safety of the fjords and venture out into the open sea for an 8 hour stretch. Our guide had warned us that it was coming and even before dinner it started to get rocky so we got prepared, got into bed and took some sea sick tablets just to be sure and started the 8 hour countdown until we were back in the calm fjords. 18 hours later the boat finally stopped swaying.

That had been no ordinary crossing, the waves and wind were so high that the captain spent the whole night and morning turning into the wind to get to where we needed to go. The whole night the boat had been lurching from side to side to the extent that we were nearly thrown from our beds and the entire contents of the room were on the floor being thrown from side to side. We didn’t get much sleep as holding onto the bed was more of a priority. When there was no announcement that breakfast was ready I went to explore and discovered the boat was like a ghost ship, not a person to be seen, every chair in the dining room was on the floor against the wall and the sofas in the TV room had all moved completely blocking the emergency escape onto the deck, yikes!

We went back to our cabin and awaited the announcement for lunch. Thankfully everything was back to normal before we knew it. Although the staff were all looking a bit worse for wear as none of them had been able to sleep either.

The remaining time on the boat, we just took in the view and I think that photos largely speak for themselves. There was not a lot of wildlife around at this time of year, we just saw a few seals and sea birds. There is a pod of orcas year round in the fjord but despite by best efforts to seek them out I just couldn’t handle the cold for more than a few minutes at a time and if they were out there I missed them. I will find you one day Mr Orca!

There were a couple of highlights on the journey that brought most of the 13 passengers onto the deck, we passed an old ship wreck, saw a lot of snow capped mountains and passed through a channel barely big enough for the boat, watching the captain concentrating in the bridge was pretty nerve-wracking as a sister boat actually grounded and sank in a different part of the route last year, so this was no walk in the park to navigate.

Just a few hours later than we were due to arrive we pulled into Puerto Natales as the sun was setting and casting some beautiful colours over this little quaint fishing town.

We left the comfort of our little cabin and were back into the world of trying to find a bed for the night. We hadn’t booked ahead as you never quite know when the boat is going to arrive as there are so many places that delays can occur due to the tide. We arrived at about 7pm and in the now dark streets started to wonder around in search of a hostel. This turned out to be a little more treacherous than we anticipated as they had had snow in the days before we had arrived which had now turned the pavements into ice rinks and we slipped and slid our way to the town centre.

Our hearts began to sink as walked past hostel after hostel all of which were closed for the season as seemingly no one in their right mind comes to Patagonia at this time of year. Then we spotted a little creperie which had a sign for a hostel next door, it looked way to nice for our budget but we thought we would try our luck and as it was it was only £30 a night which for Chile and Patagonia is not too high so we booked a room for the night and decided to try to get somewhere cheaper for the next couple of days.

After a nice dinner in the creperie we set about looking for a cheaper hostel and found the Tin House, a hostel a bit cheaper and with great reviews so we booked through their website and the next morning after breakfast dragged ourselves and our luggage across the town in the freezing cold and over the same slippy slidy pavements we had faced the day before.

We made it to the hostel and rang the bell….. nothing….. we waited and waited and waited, still nothing. With no cafes or restaurants open and no way of contacting the hostel we walked back the way we had come and ended up sat back outside the hotel that we had started in. I left Tim sat on a bench like a hobo and did one more loop of the town to see if the hostel was open and once again, nothing.

We made the executive decision to book back into the hotel we had been in, furious that w
e had missed out on a lie in and wasted a morning. But we got over it quickly and set about booking a tour the following day to Torres Del Paine national park, well we can’t come all this way and not pay it a visit.

Most tourists will spend days and weeks hiking around Torres del Paine, we would not have been taking this option in any event due to Tim’s nimble knees and our immense dislike of hiking which is just as well as due to the weather all the walking trails were closed. So guilt free we set off on a bus tour to see the best bits. The park is beautiful and with the cold weather the clouds were high in the sky giving us a magnificent view of the mountains. In summer the clouds are usually low obscuring the view and winds are usually high, so high in fact that our guide showed us some photos of tour buses that had been blown over! Perhaps Patagonia in winter wasn’t so bad after all. The other positive aside from the weather was the absolute lack of people, aside from the 8 or so other people on the tour the park was totally empty and we could enjoy the sights and peace without hundreds of other tourist groups walking into our photos.

Torres Del Paine gets its name from the three distinctive granite peaks that extend up to 2,500 meters above sea level. The park is made up of so many magnificent features, from lakes, waterfalls and glaciers to astonishing striped rock formations which show harder sedimentary rock layers which were created when lava flowed through the rocks eroding the weaker sedimentary layers. We saw guanacos aplenty, the biggest and grumpiest of the camelids in South America, they were even spitting at each other when they got too close. Our lunch stop was at a campground which as expected was empty aside from us and a cheeky fox who has taken up residence and spends her days stealing everyone’s sandwiches.

The final stop of the day was a really interesting one, it was the cave where the first ever mylodon remains were found. Whats a Mylodon? Well it is a now extinct giant sloth that roamed Patagonia 10 million years ago. Fossils were found in this cave in 1896 and were in such good condition that people believed they belonged to an animal that was still living and sparked a wave of expeditions looking for the living animal. Sadly they were unsuccessful and we just had to make do with a photo with a fibreglass replica.

After a long days touring we were back at our hotel and were packing ready for the next adventure,,,, a short hop across the border to the other side of the Torres Del Paine National Park, into Argentina to see the Moreno Glacier.