The South Patagonian Icefield is one of the few icefields in the world that is still growing. It sits in the Magellanes y Antarctica region of Chile, way down south but not as far south as Tierra del Fuego. We are not cruise people, the closest we have come to a cruise is spending four days on the Alaska Marine Highway a couple of years ago – fabulous experience, but definitely NOT a cruise. But we really wanted to explore the glaciers and fjords of Southern Patagonia, and having hiked so much of Torres Del Paine NP on land, it made sense to go and see what we could find of Torres del Paine NP from the sea.
Day 1 : Puerto Natales -> Guardamiro Fjord
We boarded the Skorpio III, a 100-passenger icefield expedition ship on Sunday afternoon at the dock in Puerto Natales. We were pleasantly surprised by our cabin, it being reasonably spacious with a large, private bathroom. Yay! After weeks of camping, I am always ecstatic about having my own bathroom for a while. We went down for dinner and met much of the crew and a handful of our fellow passengers. The majority of passengers will only board tomorrow, and while this cruise normally splits about 50/50 between Spanish speakers and English speakers, apparently in our week aboard we will be in a distinct minority of English speakers – about 15%. So, we used my rather sparse Spanish to communicate over dinner with a couple from Santiago much to Paul’s frustration as he is normally the more outgoing of the two of us, and he has no Spanish and they had zero English. We did manage to bond over rugby, Chile apparently having great aspirations to become a rugby nation and being suitably in awe of Springbok rugby.
The next morning, we set sail for Guardamiro Fjord, using the time to settle in on board and to meet a few more English speakers. We were happy to learn that we would be grouped (for meals and excursions) with the other English-speaking folks for the rest of the voyage which will definitely make for a more fun and less isolating experience.
The elephant seals of Guardamiro Fjord were a little disappointing considering we have such a large colony of them just up the road from us in California. But it was still fun to be out on the water and to watch their lazy movements. They sure are huge animals, and here there is no surf to contend with so they can be extra slow and lazy.
Day 2 : Guardamiro Fjord -> Glaciar Amalia -> Glaciar Guillard
We were awoken this morning to icebergs crashing by the side of the ship and glaciers visible from the windows as we dropped anchor at the foot of the Amalia glacier. We had made excellent progress overnight and were using a quick weather break to view this glacier on our way north.
After breakfast we boarded the smaller expedition craft that would take us right up to the face of Amalia which measured some 1.5 miles across and 160 feet high. It was a wonderful experience, with the boat crunching through floating ice and large pieces of the glacier thunderously calving off in front of our eyes. The color of the water is that spectacular glacial blue, full of silt. This glacier is unusual because there is a volcano rising up right in the middle of its path to the ocean, and so it carries a lot of ash and dust long with it from bygone years and looks particularly dirty.
After defrosting aboard with some hot chocolate (it is very, very cold outside) we weighed anchor and headed up another fjord to Guillard Glacier, which is in Bernardo O’Higgins NP. We had come close to Bernardo O’Higgins NP from the other side of the Icefield when visiting Cochrane and Rio Tranquillo, so it was really cool to almost close the loop and see the park from the other side.
The ship has special permission from CONAF to land at Guillard allowing us to explore the glacial valley leading to the face of glacier on foot. What a fabulous experience! The cliffsides rising precipitiously on each side, weeping cascades of water from lakes high above us, the finely ground silt and water spreading across the valley floor, the immensity of the glacier, the vastness of space and time in this incredibly lightly touched place – it was unreal. This incredibly special feeling was exacerbated by the fact that it was pouring with rain when we first went shore, it all felt so primal. And waterlogged. But so much fun! And it was great to stretch our legs a little and get some exercise.
This evening was karaoke night onboard, which given my complete lack of musical talents is one of my least favorite activities. But our table, made up of two very lovely couples, one from England and one from Australia, was keen to join in the fun. We ended up having an absolute blast alternating numbers between Spanish and English with much enthusiasm for both. We also have a lovely young Canadian girl with us who sings in a nationally acclaimed choir, and she treated us to a couple of truly beautiful arias along the way. It was a fabulous evening that ended far too late!
Day 3 : Glaciar Guillard -> Calvo Fjord -> El Brujo
The Calvo Fjord is an endless spectacle of snow-capped mountains and enormous glaciers. After dropping anchor in the bay during a simply spectacular sunrise, we enjoyed a hearty breakfast, bundled up warmly and gathered in a smaller expedition boat for a two-hour cruise around this incredible place. The fjord is full of icebergs, some large and to be avoided, others smaller and easily bumped out of the way, many just melded together by sheer over-population of ice on the water. The boats push their way through, bouncing and bumping along, and sometimes just pushing steadily against the more stubborn accumulations of icefloes until they gave way. It was fabulous. The views all around Calvo were incredible, melding into one amazing vision of ice-covered beauty. So many glaciers we lost count and will never remember all the names. Any time the ice eased up a little the dolphins joined us, cavorting along with the boat. Seals and sealions abounded as well and there are so many birds, you eventually stop noticing them. And with so much ice around, I have to admit I got really cold. There was whisky (with ancient glacial ice fished out of the water en route!) and hot chocolate and a diesel heater in the boat, but it was still cold. I don’t think we have experienced cold like this since Iceland.
During lunch, the ship weighed anchor and moved further up the fjord to Glaciar El Brujo. El Brujo means Warlock, and this glacier is known for the resounding thunderous roars it emits almost constantly as it cracks and moves and loses pieces of itself into the ocean below. The weather remained dry and still and we were lucky enough to be able to land on the large granite rocks in front of the Warlock glacier, allowing us to contemplate for some time its sheer scale and immensity. And to sit and watch it send thunderous cascades of ice crashing into the sea below. Exhilarating times!
Day 4 : El Brujo -> Fjord de Las Montanas -> Glaciar Bernal
After a full day of touring and watching the glaciers and ice floes, we met up with our group around the dinner table again for another fabulous meal. The food and wine on this trip have been very good, and we have thoroughly enjoyed the company of our new friends. I think we were very lucky to have a table that bonded immediately and got along famously well. We told stories, shared experiences, compared notes and laughed a lot. Really good hard laughs.
The ship motored south through the night, and we woke up amidst the glorious beauty of the Fjordo de las Montanas, the fjord of the mountains. It was amazing. We stood on the ship’s bridge and watched each valley pass by so we could get a peek of the glacier that would inevitably be filling the valley or be hanging from a cliff halfway up to the Icefield that stretches across the full expanse of these mountains.
For our last adventure, the ship put in at Glaciar Bernal, the most exquisite spot in all of Patagonia. The fjord is so deep that the ship literally pointed its bow into the rock, engaged the lowest speed and just hung out there while we all went ashore and walked up to the front of the glacier. As this glacier has receded it left pools of water in varying shapes and sizes, interspersed by enormous rocks that have rolled down the mountain at some point. In the last ten years, thick forest has started growing across the moraine and between the lakes. The color of the water is totally unreal and differs slightly from pool to pool depending on the mineral content of each. All of this leads to an absolutely amazing palette of color and shape and reflection. We sat there and gazed at it in awe for at least an hour.
And then we were on our way back to Puerto Natales. We passed through the Angostura Narrows on the way, which were beautiful and teeming with wildlife. Our last night on the boat, the kitchen pulled out all stops and offered up an amazing buffet of Chilean specialties in a dinner party of note. It was fabulous fun, and we had an amazing time! But we will be looking forward to a few quieter evenings and earlier bedtimes for the next week or so.