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Tierra del Fuego – 1: Ventus Australis, Ainsworth Bay and the Tucker Islets

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16th – 17th March 2018

A three-hour coach journey from Puerto Natales brought us to Punta Arenas and the first slight hiccup in what had been an otherwise flawless logistical flow. Our itinerary instructions said that we would be put on the coach (Buses Fernandez) to Punta Arenas and met there to be taken to the port to board Ventus Australis, a brand-new (started service in January 2018) 200-passenger ship which would take us around Tierra del Fuego, Cape Horn, the Magellan Straits and other evocative destinations (though the Beagle Channel sounds a bit more like a TV service that hunt followers or Snoopy fans might tune into).

What became apparent as we approached Punta Arenas was that there were multiple stops in the city, starting at the airport and working inwards. When we got to the Buses Fernandez terminal and everyone looked to be getting off, we followed suit. But there was no friendly face above a card with our names on it, so we spent a few angst-ridden moments wondering if we should have stayed with the coach. Jane got on the phone (thank God for mobiles) to our tour organiser’s local contact, who also professed to be puzzled as to the absence of reception committee. To cut a long story short, some moments later a driver showed up, full of profuse apologies and muttered Spanish among which Jane thought she heard the words “pneumaticos”, so we charitably assumed that he’d had trouble wth a flat tyre. Anyway, the practical upshot was that we got to the port, checked in – and found that we had three hours to kill before they’d let us join the boat.

So it was that we headed off into the bustling metropolis of Punta Arenas, in search of coffee. Although it has a much larger population than Puerto Natales, there isn’t frankly, a lot to see in the town; but we did stumble across the buildings that were the “palaces” (very grand residences) of some of the pioneers of the vast sheep-processing business whose buildings now form part of the Singular hotel in Puerto Natales, including Sara Braun and Jose Norgueira. Fortunately their palace had found modern use as a hotel with a bar, so we had lunch there, in the Shackleton Bar, whilst (inter alia) watching a DVD of Shackleton’s ludicrous folly of exploring Antarctica and reckless gamble taken to rescue the men he nearly killed doing it. I had a local Pale Ale, which the barman charmingly called a “Pally Ally”.

There was WiFi available at the boarding terminal, and so the pre-boarding hall was awash with people taking their last sip of internet before four days off the grid. I was one of those people.

We were eventually allowed to board, and discovered that the Ventus is indeed a very fine ship, with great facilities, good food and obliging service. There was also hot water available at the coffee points. See, I knew it was going to be worth bringing those tea bags with us.

For those with cruising experience, the next hours would follow a familiar pattern – welcome drinks, introduction to the crew and tour officials, safety briefing (including how to cha-cha-cha into a Zodiac rib), then the trepidatious journey to dinner to find out whether you’re going to get on with whomever it is you’ll be eating with. We struck lucky, with a nice Australian couple d’un age not dissimilar to ours – Lynette and Ken.

The next day saw the first excursion, to Ainsworth Bay, where our guide, Rodrigo, led us along an easy ramble through bogs and forest, explaining at various points what we were seeing – plants, lichens, moss, trees. Oh, and glaciers. Our starting point offered us a great view of the Marinelli glacier:

You can see it either side of the central hill in the photo above. Rodrigo gave us, as evidence that this, like most glaciers in the world, is receding, the nugget that 100 years before the glacier reached to the point from where I took this photo. Evidence from original photos by Alberto de Agostini.

The ramble took us through a very photogenic environment.

And then we were offered hot chocolate and whisky before being whisked back to the ship

On the way back, in a lovely piece of serendipity, the Zodiacs were accompanied by a pod of playful dolphins, which spent a couple of hours frolicking around as the ribs went back and forth to pick up groups from the shore. What is it about dolphins that makes seeing them such an engaging experience?

The other expedition that day was to the Tucker Islets, where the advertised attractions were Magellanic penguins

and the common cormorant, or shag.

and, while it was nice enough to see them and learn a little about them, what was more interesting to me was some of the other action going on. For example, there was a turkey vulture glowering at proceedings, presumably hoping for a spot of lunch

and several skuas squabbling and fighting over whatever opportunities they found

These two expeditions, and a couple of G&Ts at the bar, closed off what was a very good day one, and left us with the mouth-watering prospect of an expedition to a glacier on day two. Stay tuned for the next thrilling (and probably chilling) instalment!

A Singular Experience in Puerto Natales

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13th – 16th March 2018

Some hotels give themselves airs and graces through their names “Grand”, “Splendid”, “Imperial”, that kind of thing. Sometimes the reality matches the name, often it doesn’t. We’ve had the pleasure of staying in one that absolutely matches its name.

We have a long and extensive itinerary for our South American trip, and we will have many varied experiences before we get home in April – trains and boats and planes (and at least one coach journey). The descriptions of our various accommodations have been very complimentary about how nice they will be. Puerto Natales is a very small town – a very small town – and I probably subconsciously allowed this to affect my expectations about what our hotel near there, called the “Singular”, would be like. Such expectations weren’t heightened when we approached, down a bumpy, rutted track, what appeared to be a ramshackle selection of brick buildings with red painted corrugated iron roofs.

The reality was different from, and vastly superior to, anything I might have imagined. The buildings are from a century-old factory which processed sheep – hundreds of thousands of them at a time – canning them, freezing them, creating leather, rendering the carcases for tallow. It was, in its time, a huge business. After the second world war, it went into a decline as demand for canned lamb (for soldiers), wool and other products declined. After it shut down, it was made into a national monument and a museum. Then it was turned into a hotel, with the fixtures and fittings of a top-quality luxury hotel beautifully merged into the original buildings and museum – many parts of the old infrastructure have been preserved and can be walked around. The only major structural change has been to change what were the freezing chambers into a set of ocean-facing (and very luxurious) bedrooms. Other parts of the building have been made into an excellent bar and a superb restaurant.

One of the great charms of the place is that walking from one part of the hotel to another takes you past some of the old machinery (such as steam and diesel generators), which is largely English and lovingly restored. Seeing it reminded me strongly of the engine rooms beneath Tower Bridge in London – the machinery is of similar ponderous scale and the smell of old machinery and oil is utterly distintive.

One thing that delighted me utterly and made me fall completely in love with the place is something that greets you pretty much on first entry. You arrive in a large shed, go through the entrance to a check in area, and the staff (who give excellent service) invite you to go down to reception, pressing a button to summon what you’d think would be a lift. But it isn’t – it’s a funicular railway; absolutely part of the original building but now a charming way of leading guests to the reception area.

The hotel experience is as good as anything I’ve ever experienced – very comfortable, large, well-organised rooms, excellent service, fine food, superb decor. It’s a superb place to stay and one I’d heartily recommend to anyone.

Mmmmmm…..Condor

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15th March 2018

If the title of this post rings a bell, then you’re getting on a bit, just like me.

The condor is the iconic bird of the Andes (anyone remember a superb set of programmes on the Beeb several decades ago entitled “Flight of the Condor” and describing the geography of the Andes? No? Ah, well. They were great). On several occasions we were privileged to catch sight of one or two of these huge birds soaring magnificently above. So, when we were offered the chance to do a half-day excursion including a short hike with a chance of getting a better view, we could scarce believe our luck.

So it was we set out from the Singular Hotel in Puerto Natales, heading for Sofia Lake, about half an hour’s drive away. The driver pulled off the road on to a patch of grass at the start of the hike, and it was at that point that our guide, a really nice chap called Nicolas, explained that although the hike was just 420 metres, that was the vertical ascent we would have to climb, pointing as he did so at a couple of solitary trees at the top of a cliff:

It would be fair comment to say that my heart sank at this point, since I hadn’t climbed more than a flight of stairs for quite a while. So I accepted the offer of a loaned pair of walking poles with as much good grace as I could muster, and off we went.

Up. And up. And up.

Nicolas was very good and genuinely seemed to enjoy answering questions about the local flora and fauna. Jane told me later that her (very intelligent) questions may have sounded like a thirst for information, but were actually a tactic to give me a bit of a rest. So we learned a lot, particularly about plants and allied life forms on the way up. For example, some of the (mainly lenga, or beech) trees had a fungus growing on them which Nicolas called “Indian Bread” – edible but unrewarding without lots of seasoning, apparently.

It was also a good demonstration of the cleanliness of the air that there was lichen everywhere – old man’s beard and Spanish moss bedecked plants and trees all along our route (well, until we cleared the tree line, anyway):

And my legs and lungs were granted the occasional breather by the odd occasional photo opportunity as some great views crept into, well, view:

To cut a long and pantful story short, we eventually made it to the top. And immediately reaped the rewards, as the views were fantastic.

(Standing by one of those two solitary trees, it was just possible to make out the white speck of the minibus which brought us.)

But, even better, before too long a couple of condors and a juvenile came to check us out, and so we got a chance to see them flying at quite close quarters.

Surprisingly, young condors take a long time to learn to fly – around a year – as they are very heavy (a full-grown condor can weigh in at 14kg, and has a wingspan of nearly 4m, which makes me glad to know that they very, very rarely bother to pay attention to living creatures, but, unless food is exceedingly scarce, are strictly carrion eaters).

It was a real pleasure to see these iconic creatures a little closer to so that we could appreciate their mastery of the air!