Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

Thursday March 1

Here was another port where you didn't gather the group, the tour company does, so I posted it and everyone wanting to go just booked directly with them. They run 2 vans that hold 16 and 14 people.
We met for tender tickets and had a bit of a wait as the new Captain was late getting anchored. Hope that isn't a trend. http://www.enpatagoniatours.com    enpatagonia@gmail.com 

We walked up a short hill to meet the guides and got seated in our respective vans. We were off about 10 minutes early and drove to our first stop which was a restroom break.

 meeting place by the shopping yurts

Then we toured Puerto Aysen which is a fishing town nestled between mountains and water. We saw the plaza, the longest suspension bridge in Chile and the main dock where fisherman bring in their boats from the fjords. 

We drove through the Simpson River Valley, one of the most scenic drives in the region. We followed the river through the valley passing lush farmland and dramatic rugged green mountains. We passed interesting looking homes and saw waterfalls along the way. There were lots of wildflowers and huge wild fushia bushes. Our guide Aldo was very good and told us a lot about life in the area. Our driver was Wilson and we had Izzy a guide in training.

We then made our way to Reserva Nacional Rio Simpson where we stopped to visit. We only had about 40 minutes here, which wouldn't have been enough time, but it was raining and we didn't get to walk even a short trail.

We stopped at two waterfalls, Cascada Gemelas (twin falls) and la Cascada de la Virgen and/or Salta de Leon.

Then it was time for lunch which was the highlight of the day. It stopped raining and we saw a bit of sunshine for a bit as well. Lunch was at a beautiful farm and we had a 10 to 15 minute walk to get from the suspension bridge across the farmland past cattle, sheep, alpacas, cats & chickens. They also had many greenhouses. We arrived at the campo and were greeted by a couple and a young boy (he's 5 years old) all dressed in native costume passing out Pisco Sours as we entered the beautiful quincho (wooden barbecue house built to roast meat and have get togethers) where we would have our lunch.
The area is known as Pangal and it truly is like a post card of Northern Patagonia with the green snow-capped mountains and their farm.

 we walked over the bridge to get to their house

 view from the bridge

 Rufus-tailed Plant-cutter

 Southern Lapwing

Don Carlos and Señora Juani own the farm which they call Predio Aguelarre. They brought around baskets of pastry type bread hot from the oven with a salsa to have while we watched the couple dance to traditional music. Even the little boy got up and danced. They danced 'cueca' which is the national dance of Chile and 'chamame' which is an Argentine folk dance.

 lamb roasting

 salmon

 bread

 lamb & potatoes

We ordered our meal in advance and we had a choice of asado al palo (lamb roasted over an open fire), or empanadas or you could choose salmon or beef if you didn't like lamb. It was served with roasted potatoes. They came around with baskets of more lamb for anyone wanting more. Each table got a bottle of wine.

All too soon it was time for the 30 minute ride back to the port. A few of us stopped at the yurts to shop for trinkets. Would highly recommend this tour!

 sail away

I used my time on the ship before sailing to update the blog up until Puerto Montt. (yes, I'm way behind)

It was a German buffet upstairs tonight so we went up there and watched the sail away back out through the fjords. Beautiful scenery with lots of salmon farms and fishing boats. From the balcony we were watching lots of fish jumping. The water was teaming with them.

The show was Ric Steel again with a different show. He is quite entertaining.

Still not a peep from the new Captain of the ship. We pick up a replacement Cruise Director in San Antonio (Santiago), but until then the entertainment manager is filling in. I can see why he is a behind the scenes guy as tonight after the show he made a few announcements that were not handled well. First he said we just had the last of our tender ports which is incorrect as Salaverry in Peru is a tender port. (unless it has changed) Then he said tomorrow is a formal night so we all get to dress up. The crowd grumbled loudly (as they have each time the CD mentions we have one) He reacted very strongly and said you knew there were formal nights when you booked the cruise and the guy behind me shouted we were told 5 total not 3 per segment. More grumbling and the fill in guy says "Well, you booked the cruise I didn't. Dress up; don't dress up, I don't care and the dining room won't turn you away..." Great customer service for sure! LOL

Now, for 2 days at sea to relax!

****Flood update: Returning to our cabin from our great day ashore and we see the fans still running in our room and down the hall. We see more mattresses out in the hall. June said a pipe burst again and flooded the room next door again. He opened the door to show us and everything was out of there. Carpets pulled out and the bed was gone. We had seen earlier that they were removing out all of the clothing from the closet so they now have a new cabin. So, we had more water on our carpet and the fans were back in place.

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile https://photos.app.goo.gl/IjT7mxP3e2FqwHze2