SOUTH AMERICA – PART 5

After five days on Rapa Nui, we laid over in Santiago for a day and spent our second visit there just hanging around downtown mostly, watching the frantic Saturday traffic on pedestrian streets and on Plaza de Armas. We did check out one tourist attraction, San Cristobal, a hill located in the center of the city that affords a nice view from all angles. We wandered around the summit and dropped into the beautiful church there, listening to prayers and watching nuns assembled for the occasion take cellphone photos and videos of the altar and one another! As Jos Denis was fond of saying: « C’est ça la société d’aujourd’hui! ».

Next morning, we headed to San Antonio by Flixbus. By 1:00, we were in our cabin aboard the Oosterdam, cruise #7 for us on the Holland America line. After a full month on the go, we were glad to finally unpack our suitcases and get some serious laundry done. The ship is certainly a step up from other ones we’ve sailed on; it’s bigger, has more amenities, and our room is the nicest inside cabin we’ve had so far. We felt at home right away! The photo below shows Santa’s Village. All the buildings are made of gingerbread, and it smells heavenly!

The Oosterdam sailed southward to our first stop, Puerto Montt, a port city about the same size as Charlottetown. We tendered ashore and made our way to the tourist information desk where a helpful guide told us where to find an ATM and how to get to our car rental location by taxi. One hour later, we were on our way to the lake district and Petrohué Falls, skirting the southern shore of Lago Lanquihue as we went. The falls may not be the biggest or the highest we’ve seen but the setting is absolutely spectacular. The photo below shows the falls with the enormous Orsono Volcano in the background. Depending on your perspective, either Orsono looks like Mt. Fuji, or Fuji looks like Orsano.

Leaving the National Park, we drove the scenic road around the rest of the lake, stopping for a bite in the pretty town of Puerto Octay. Much of this part of Chile was settled in the 1800s by German immigrants, and you can tell by the style of the older commercial buildings, houses, and farmsteads. The rolling countryside is characterized by very rich pastureland and large herds of beef cattle. I must also mention that the forests are spectacular. We dropped our Suzuki off around 2:00, having seen all that was on our list and more. The day cost us about $120 CDN, including taxi, car rental, highway tolls, park entrance fee, parking, and lunch. A similar Holland America excursion would have set us back $560! It was one of those days when everything went right. The Canadiens even won a rare game in overtime on a goal by Captain Nick Suzuki!

Our next port of call was Puerto Chacabuco, a tiny town with a population of about 1,200. As one gentleman I walked with to catch the local bus to nearby Puerto Aysen remarked: “I suppose they have to stop somewhere!”. As experienced cruisers, we’ve gotten used to ports like these that have not much to offer except a good walk. It was raining when we arrived and raining when we left but we had a good day, nonetheless. As often happens, the smaller ports are the most welcoming. The local military band was playing a few tunes – very well I might add – outside the tiny but functional cruise terminal. We walked to the center of town and took a local bus to nearby Puerto Aysen, population 28,000. It cost $6 return for the two of us and we felt sorry for passengers who paid big bucks for tours on a miserable day. Others may have gotten cheated by unscrupulous taxi drivers who always hang around port entrances looking for victims. I got a haircut and caught up on some work using the terminal’s excellent wifi. Not a bad day for all!

We spent almost two full days cruising the Chilean fjords between Puerto Chacabuco and Punta Arenas. The mountainous terrain on both sides of the vessel reminded us of Norway. Others have said it’s a lot like a West Coast cruise in British Columbia and Alaska. On the morning of the second day, we started seeing more snow on the mountains as we sailed further south. The Oosterdam slowed so that we could get a closeup view of the Brujo Glacier, shown in the second photo below.

We sailed south until the Oosterdam entered the Strait of Magellan, arriving early in the morning at Punta Arenas, Chile’s most southerly city with a population of 130,000 or so. We’d rented a car and walked to Europcar to pick it up. We had time to take a short walk in the Magellanes National Reserve before heading southwest on the main road. We didn’t go all the way to where it ends but we did get a good idea of what the coastline looks south of the city. Back in Punta Arenas, we walked part of the pretty seaside promenade which features statues and artwork. From there, we drove to the cemetery, a can’t-miss attraction with some of the most impressive mausoleums you’ll see anywhere. The photo below shows two of them.

I wanted to see the replica of Hernando de Magellanes’ (Ferdinand Magellan’s) ship, the nao Victoria, the first ship to successfully circumnavigate the world. Five ships left Seville, Spain in August of 1519 and sailed south across the Atlantic. It took them three years to complete the voyage and only the Victoria made it home. The replica is to scale, and one is free to wander around, including below decks. I can’t imagine how over 40 men could survive in such tight quarters. Next to the Victoria is a replica of the H.M.S. Beagle, the ship Charles Darwin sailed on in 1831. His observations during the voyage led him to develop his theory of evolution.

Both men’s stories were important to me in my formative years; Magellan because he was the first to sail around the world and Darwin because he helped me appreciate the folly of the Catholic Church’s creation story. Even at 7 years old, I couldn’t get my head around the idea that the universe was created in six days! Tracing Magellan’s journey on the school map in Wellington made me dream of travelling to far-flung destinations although, in truth, I never imagined I’d make it this far.

Punta Arenas turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It’s clean and modern and the people are very friendly. For reference, December 7 here is like June 7 in the Northern Hemisphere weatherwise. As for latitude, Puerto Montt is about as far from the South Pole as Charlottetown is from the North Pole, and Punta Arenas is as far south as Hopedale in Labrador and Grande Prairie in Alberta are north. The days here are very long, with sunrise before 6:00 sunset well after 10:00. The photos below show one of many shipwrecks along the coast near Punta Arenas and the lovely, wooded walk we took in the Magellan National Reserve.

Between Punta Arenas and Ushuaia, we sailed through that part of the Beagle Channel called “Glacier Alley”. It was a foggy morning, but the views were nonetheless impressive.