Day 11 – Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

To get to our next port of call we cruised Canal Moraleda and the  Aisen Fjord, a very nice way to wake up to in the morning!

  

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile, was our destination today, it was another port that I was looking forward to, but due to the weather, it was one of the most disappointing. We were booked to go kayaking on Lake Los Palos, but due to high winds the tour company cancelled the trip, and we had to find an alternative tour, all that was available to us was a bus tour around the area. As it is a small port, we anchored and used tenders to get ashore, which was not a problem as it is a very sheltered port.

Puerto Chacabuco is also within Patagonia, and is another attractive area that would be worth an extended visit. Our tour was a bus ride from the port out to “Reserva Nacional Rio Simpson“

 

    

One of the main attractions is a tree that started life in 1578 and lived unto 1970. The various events that occurred during its life have been listed next to the tree and marked out on the tree.

There is also a diorama that exhibits the various wildlife that inhabits the area

We then followed a walking track around the grounds and along the river itself

When were back in the bus we head further out to Cascada de La Virgen, a waterfall with a shrine to the Virgin Mary next to it. Unfortunately we were not allowed out of the bus, which was very strange, so had to take the shots through the glass

From the falls we head back into towards the port, with a stop at Aisen

Not really much to see in Aisen, it was also strange to see that all of the various arts and crafts shops were closed, even though there was a Cruise Ship in town, would have expected that they don’t get an opportunity to sell to cruise ships often.

 The time we spent in Aisen could have been shortened so that we could have spent a few minutes at the Shrine to the Virgin Mary as we would not have missed much. From Aisen we headed back to the port to board the tender and head back to the ship.

The Kayaking today was a premium tour, one that we had to pay for, whilst we did get the cost of the tour refunded in full, I find it difficult to understand why the tour company could not have arranged a plan “B” for this sort of thing, as they must have lost money because of the loss of revenue and the wages that they had to pay. I suggested the same to Regent, hopefully they will take notice, but I am sure that I am not the first and won’t be the last one suggest the same.

Tomorrow is a Sea Day, cruising through more of the Chilean Fjords, en route to Punta Arenas, Chile. Hopefully I will get a chance to go for a paddle this time, have booked the Kayaking on the Straits of Magellan tour!