Day 14 ... a boat trip to a glacier (or two)

Today we had a super early start with a 7.15am pick up. So ... as always - an alarm, dressed, breakfast and then to the lobby to wait for our pick up.

This time it was almost spot on ... just 5 minutes after the set time. We boarded our bus and said hello to some of our fellow travellers from yesterday who were doing the same trip as us. 

The bus took us on a short drive to Puerto Bories where we boarded our catamaran - the Juana Rodriguez - which would take us to Cerro Balmaceda and to the Serrano Glacier.

We had commentary along the way, first in Spanish and then in English. As we sailed we saw lots of different things ... so again we will highlight each one rather than run a commentary of our own.

Here are the major points of the day.

The Sound ... Ultima Esperanza Sound (which can also be found as Esperanza Fjord or the Senoret Channel). Our journey took us 40-50km up the Sound to its northern end at Balmaceda. As with similar waterways in North America, Scandinavia and New Zealand there are steepling mountains rising from the water on either side, some green plains, huge rock faces and occasional waterfalls. The further in you go the colder it gets ... and more spectacular.

 

Cormorants ... When the Captain points the boat at a rock wall and steers straight ahead you know he's trying to get your attention. Was the give away the horizontal lines of little black dots (hundreds of cormorants on several rock ledges) or the blotchy white horizontal lines beneath the dots (a thick brushstroke coating of cormorant poop)?

A Waterfall ... Google's map of the Sound makes no reference to a thin waterfall a few km short of the Balmaceda basin. But I reckon if Sunbury had a picturesque 40m fall streaming over a cliff face, fanning out and cascading into the river below we'd have thousands of visitors every week to admire a natural wonder. Once again the Captain expertly nosed in to give us awesome views.

 

Balmeceda ... The "hanging" Balmaceda Glacier is on the western slope of Cerro (Mount) Balmaceda in the Bernardo O'Higgins National Park. Standing at over 2,000m the Mount has several glaciers with their distinctive blue tones. The large central glacier has now (due to increasing temperatures) receded from the water's edge, exposing the glacial scarring below, but is still a wonderful sight.

 

The Southern Ice Field ... The second largest contiguous ice field (that isn't part of the polar ice field). It is part of the Patagonian Ice Sheet that covered all of southern Chile during the last glacial period (ice age). It covers an area of 16,400 km². Several glaciers are within the ice field and they are known as valley glaciers.

Serrano Glacier ... Another stunning glacier on Cerro Balmaceda's east face, Serrano hangs down through a narrow valley for about 1km, and stretches 2-3km further back. Small chunks of fallen ice float in the green-watered lagoon below, which has a narrow stream connection to the Serrano River. We spent over an hour on a walk to get up close to the glacier face (sniggering at the pose-y Instagrammers). Over the last 60 years the glacier has receded more than 600m. When you see the distance markers ... today ... 2000 ... 1970 ... 1960 ... you realise how quickly we are destroying our planet.

Sea-lion resting place. Not clear what the Captain was nosing into until you heard the PA announcer and spotted the clusters of sea-lions huddled into the low rocky caves. We watched them sleep and squirm for a few minutes, at which point two more barking sea-lions joined them from the milky waters.

 

Estancia Perales. The Estancia is a cattle ranch on a flat area adjoining the Sound. The company running our tour also has a large restaurant and some accommodation options in the grounds. The 4 people on our table had selected lunch as - 3 x Lamb BBQ and 1 x Pollo (chicken). As happened at our previous Estancia lunch, a massive sizzling plate of meat was brought to our table (ribs, meat chunks, sausage) with a chicken leg and breast on the side. Plus salad, soup, bread, potato and chimichurri. And a complimentary wine/Sprite and dessert. These people love to serve up a mountain of lamb!

Homeward bound - after a delicious lunch at the Estancia we reboarded the boat (summoned by the horn) to begin our journey back to Puerto Natales. Many of our fellow travellers slept ... missing out on the beauty  of the return journey. 

 

We arrived back at our hotel just after 4pm so had lots of time to relax and enjoy the view of cloud coming in to cover Balmaceda and I had the smallest coffee known to humankind!

 

 

We are going to post this pre-dinner. Suffice to say we will eat something ... probably something light after our lovely lunch.

Tomorrow we will explore Puerto Natales on foot before we say goodbye and head to the airport for our flight to Santiago.

Steps ... 10,326

Kms ... 7.9

Photos ... 614 plus 155 from Ian

And please offer a minutes silence for the loss of my much loved hat which is somewhere out there between a bus and a boat ... gone but not forgotten.  

And hence the need to headscarf today ... one to keep the head warm and two to keep the hair out of my face!