Chile Fjords-Patagonia Day 11
Chile Fjords-Patagonia
OAT Day 11 - Monday, December 10, 2007 - Pio XI Glacier - Puerto Eden
When we woke up at 7:00 we were right at the leading edge of the Pio XI Glacier. This is the largest glacier in South America and one of the few advancing glaciers in the world. What an eye opener for the morning!
After breakfast, the captain announced our morning excursion in front of this awesome work of Mother Nature. With a surface area of 487 square miles, and part of the largest national park in Chile, Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, it is truly a spectacular sight!
We put on all of our warm clothes and then got into the small life boats. We cruised out into the floating icebergs, then even closer to the icy slush along the edge of the glacier.
Again we saw the glaciers calving but being so close to the glacier we also felt the shocks of the cracking ice and the resulting waves caused our little craft to bob in the ice channel.
After about an hour on the ice we were all very cold. One of the sailors from the big boat boarded our vessel with a huge thermos of hot chocolate and a big bottle of cognac. After our little refreshment, we were all warmed for another 30 minutes of ice viewing!
We motored back to the ship and then went to the lounge to look at our photos and to have another hot chocolate for Gennie and a coffee for me. While we warmed up inside, the captain maneuvered the Skorpios III even closer to the glacier for a photo opportunity for those who chose not to go out on the little boats.
We set out again at midday to navigate the Eyre Bay, Grappler Channel, and (Paso del Indio) Indian Passage. At 2:00 we met Ruben again for a lecture about the ethnic natives of the Southern Icefields and this part of the tip of Chile.
We arrived in the late afternoon at Puerto Eden, the cradle of these ancient native tribes of the region, and disembarked the ship into the lifeboats that took us to the village located on Wellington Island.
The first inhabitants here were the Kaweskar (or Alacalufes) natives who navigated through these latitudes in fragile canoes. Though these tribes are on the verge of extinction, some members continue to live here.
As a tribute to these survivors this cruising route is called the “Kaweskar Explorers Route.” We noticed that the village has no streets—only footbridges. We gathered as a group of OAT travelers and Maria Elena took us to visit the school here in this very remote fjord.
Many of us shared the gifts that we had brought for the school children. We had another hour to explore the island and to climb the overlook at the top of this rugged valley.
This geographical area was formed by the movement of plates of the Earth’s crust during the last period of the Ice Age (60,000 to 70,000 years ago). The movement was so intense that Patagonia’s present channels and fjords were ripped from solid rock, becoming visible as the glaciers slowly retreated and melted.
We got back to the ship at 6:30 and changed out of our cold wet clothes. We met Judy and Carol to celebrate Carol’s happy birthday; one she will surely remember.
At 7:15 Maria Elena arranged for us to meet with 2 other passengers who happened to be on this same ship with us. Both are wine experts, Pablo Cremaschi from Chile who owns the Tierra del Fuego wineries and Carlos Cabral, his friend from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who is a wine consultant.
They gave us an excellent summary of the Chilean wine industry as well as a quick lesson in choosing and tasting wines. Carlos reminded us “that the best wine is the one you share with those you love”.
We set out from Puerto Eden, sailing through both the Indian Passage and the Abyss Passage (Paso del Abismo). We had dinner and then came back to our room at 10:00.
Rubin showed the video that he has been producing of our trip so far, so I went in to the lounge and watched the highlights of the first three days of our voyage.
Accommodations: Skorpios III Ship - - - Meals: B, L, D
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