Day 21 - January 24, 2008 - Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

Puerto Chacabuco photos
About 4am we sailed out of open ocean and into protected waters off the coast of Chile. It was a beautiful morning sailing up the fjord to our next small port. There was a lot of recent earthquake damage to seen in landslides along the either side of the ship. There were a lot of salmon farms along the way and once we even saw some cattle grazing along the shore. It is beautiful and clear and cloudless and hot! Terry Breen announced along the way that she was seeing things she had never seen because she had never sailed here with it this clear and sunny. The high topped out around 90F. This is very unusual. We are keeping our fingers crossed that unusual holds out and we get smooth-sailing around Cape Horn. We ate a light breakfast in the Observation Lounge so we could listen to Terry's commentary as we sailed into the Aisen Fjord. We had an early lunch at the Pool Grill since we were supposed to be in the Constellation Theater at 11:50am to tender into port. We appeared to arrive on time, but it was almost an hour later before we got on a tender. Since there was almost nothing to do here without a ship's tour and we sailed an hour late, it wound up not mattering. We had good time today. Every bus was divided into 15 or fewer people and we each had a guide. We walked for about 3 hours on a trail through a private nature preserve. It was interesting walk and the guide was informative. The trail was paved with irregularly sized stones and deep gravel. Usually it is cold and wet here and that would have been an awful walk. We had a really hot walk instead. The Quincha, were the lamb barbecue lunch was held was really warm too. Usually people are probably glad to get in there around that roasting pit, but not us! Anyway, we arrived here an hour after Prinsendam and they had already had tours out there all day and we were the last ones. Prinsendam was sailing around the corner when we arrived back at the ship. Clay got to have an Austral beer at the Quincha. The temperature was in the mid 90's when we got back to the ship, not exactly the rainy, mid 50's that we were expecting.
RSSC ran a complimentary shuttle bus here from Puerto Chacabuco to Aysen Town about every 30 minutes. No idea how that worked out for people.
We booked our Buenos Aires tours before lunchtime. We have booked a Tango show for the first evening we arrive. We have booked an Estancia day for the last day, Tuesday February 5th. Everyone has assured us that Carnaval or Mardi Gras is ignored in BA, so we won't be in town. On Monday, the 4th, we have requested a private guide to see the city for 8 hours by foot and public transportation. We were quoted a price of $165 if it is possible, we are waiting to hear something back.
We had a light dinner and then Clay and Debbie were early to bed. Margie went to see the show. It was a comedian, Steve Caouette. Margie said she did not like it. We got a pair of invitations today. One was for Gold, Platinum and Titanium members of the Seven Seas Society. It is for 2:30pm tomorrow for a wine tasting of Montes Vineyards with Tapas in Compass Rose Restaurant with Carlos Serrano. Not sure if this is a repeat of the earlier Montes wine tasting by Carlos Serrano that Clay attended. This one comes with tapas, though. The other invitation was a Circumnavigator Event at 7:45am on Deck 7 Forward (crew only area) for "some breathtaking scenery and a spectacular look of the wreck Santa Leonora" with commentary from Destination Specialist John Tabbutt-McCarthy. Weather permitting. This invitation warns that we will be presented with a unique gift in preparation for our upcoming shore-side event in Ushuaia. So, we'll see.
Puerto Chacabuco photos