Cruising the Chilean fiords

You know that it's going to be a rocky ride when the seasick bags come out!
The staff put these bags all over the ship because they knew that we were going to hit some rough waters. For the last two days, we have been sailing southward through the Chilean fiords. All was calm when we were on the inside passage, but occasionally, we had to come out into the Pacific Ocean and man did those waves kick up. Normally, the waves are less than 5 feet, but as luck would have it, we hit the tail end of a storm and the waves were about 20 feet high. Add in rain and strong winds and it was like sailing through a hurricane! I can tell you that I got no sleep on those two nights.

So why did we go through all of this trouble?
To reach the Amalia glacier.
To navigate through these waters, we have an ice pilot onboard (who happens to come from Kingston, Ontario). He got the ship to within 6000 feet of the glacier. Below you can see a closeup of the glacier.
The ice on the glacier is actually blue in color and we watched chunks of it fall off into the water. The landscape around the glacier is interesting and the waters are teeming with wildlife. Since we were in calm waters during the day, I spent most of my time trying to get some sleep. When I got up, I heard that some passengers saw seals, dolphins and a couple of whales.

An ice pilot is needed in these waters because some parts of the fiords are very deep while others are very shallow. Because the fiords are very narrow, the difference between the deep side and the shallow side can be as little as 50 feet. When you are on a huge ship like ours, that makes a big difference. Markers and buoys are placed on the shallow sections, but if you don't pay attention (or have a bad ice pilot), then tragedy can strike. As we were sailing along, we passed the wreck of one passenger ship that didn't make it through the fiords.

Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

We might have missed the rain in Puerto Montt, but we weren't so lucky here. It rained on and off throughout the day and really put a damper on things.

Like many of the ports in Chile, we couldn't dock at the port and we had to take a tender over to the shore. Luckily, we had a lot of nice scenery to look at as we made our way over. Once I got on land, I boarded a tour bus and headed off into the interior of the country. The sun broke through a couple of times as we passed through Northern Patagonia.

This is one of the most beautiful regions in Chile and visitors come from all over the world to fish, camp and hike in the natural surroundings. We saw many foreigners (mostly Americans) backpacking and bicycling along the mountain roads.

Our tour took us to Coyhaique, the biggest town in the region. It is a nice little place surrounded by beautiful countryside. Below you can see the landscape that surrounds the town.

This region is very fertile because of the volcanic landscape and the heavy rainfall. The constant rain means that the area is dotted with many waterfalls, including this one – the Virgin Cascades.

As luck would have it, as soon as we returned to the dock, the rain stopped falling and the sun came out. That figures!

Puerto Montt, Chile

Well, the good weather couldn't last forever. This morning when we arrived in Puerto Montt, the sun was shining and it was a comfortable 20 C degrees. By the time we got off the tender and arrived in town, the temperature had dropped, the fog had rolled in and the clouds threatened to rain on us (which thankfully they didn't). Unfortunately, this meant that we would not be able to see the famous Osorno Volcano which dominates the landscape around here. Nonetheless, I hired a taxi van with 6 other passengers and explored the surrounding countryside.

Our first stop was the German town of Frutillar. Back in the 1800s, many Germans settled in this region and their cultural influence is vividly apparent. They have their own schools (which teach German, Spanish and English) and their homes and restaurants reflect their Germanic roots.

This vacation town in located on the shores of Lake Llanquihue, Chile's second largest lake. Normally, at this time of year (the height of the summer season), the beach would be packed with vacationers enjoying the sun and the sand. But, as you can see, the cold weather kept the crowds away.

On the way to our next stop, we stopped off at a farm that had a couple of llamas. This curious fellow wasn't the least bit shy and ran over to meet us as soon as we stepped out of the cab.

One of the busiest attractions in the area is the Petrohue Cascades. Alright, at about 20 feet it's no Niagara Falls, but at least you can get really close to the waterfalls. Because of the volcano, there is a lot of lava rock in the area. The mist from the cascades makes the area slippery and more than one tourist took a tumble on the wet pathway.

Isla Robinson Crusoe, Chile

A couple of hundred miles off the coast of Chile lie the Juan Fernandez islands. Ever heard of it? Ever want to go there? Probably not. So in 1966, Chile renamed it Robinson Crusoe island and tourism boomed. Only 500 people live on this small island, but in 1704, it had one very famous resident, Alexander Selkirk.


He was 'stranded' on the island for 4 years and 4 months before being picked up by a passing English ship. But stranded isn't really the right word when you ask to be put on the island. Selkirk thought that the ship he was sailing on was in such bad shape that he asked to be left on the island. The other people onboard should have followed his advice because the ship sank shortly afterwards and only a handful of people survived! When he got back home, Daniel Defoe heard about his adventure and wrote the book 'Robinson Crusoe' based on some of Selkirk's exploits.

I was originally planning to visit Selkirk's cave on the top of the hill, but it rained as soon as we got there, so I decided not to do it. At least one passenger did attempt the muddy climb to the top, but he fell down and was covered in mud from head to toe!

As you can imagine, there's not much to see and do in such a small place. There are only 2 streets and it takes all of 5 minutes to walk from one side of town to the other. One of the things I did see though was this house made of bottles. About 3 years ago, the original house burned down, so the owner rebuilt the new one out of the empties. So you see, there really isn't anything to do here except eat and drink and drink and drink ...

Valparaiso, Chile

Valparaiso's claim to fame is that it was mentioned in Herman Melville's classic book 'Moby Dick'. It is a very hilly town with a mixture of slums and mansions all packed together on the side of the hill. The place is so steep that there are several funiculars that take you from the bottom part of the city up to the top.

Here you can see one making the trip up and down the hill. It's a modern place with an above ground metro system, so I bought a metro pass and hopped on the LRT. I was told that one of the nicest places to visit was Vina del mar, so I got off at that transit stop. It's a big, bright area with plenty of department stores, a big casino (which I couldn't find), and really, really nice homes. This is the upscale area where the millionaires of the early 1900s lived.

I went to go see one of these old homes, the Palacio Vergara. Current millionaires also live in the area so there are lots of nice things to see and do here if you have money.

Back onboard the Prinsendam, a Chilean song and dance troupe put on a show for us.

Coquimbo and La Serena, Chile

One of the nicest places that we visited in Chile was La Serena. This is a resort town with expensive holiday homes, nice beaches, universities and no slums (for a change). The standard of living here is high and it looks like any vacation spot that you would find in Florida. The downtown area has big department stores and a nice park, but I went to see the old town square and it's surrounding area.

In the old town, you will find the archaeological museum. (By the way, there is a Scotiabank across the street from the museum. In fact, there are Scotiabank branches all over Chile so if you have an account with them, you can access your money and do your banking without getting hit with service fees. But make sure that you know your banking Spanish because only the first screen on the ATM is in English and Spanish. The other screens are Spanish only.)

Anyway, inside the museum can see an actual moai from Easter Island. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but still, this is as close as I was going to get to Easter Island.

Coquimbo is not as affluent as it's neighbour La Serena, but it was still pretty nice compared to lots of other places that we saw in Chile. It's claim to fame (or infamy) is this huge cross that was built for the millennium. Some people think that it's good, but most think that it's just a huge eyesore overlooking the city.

Iquique, Chile

Iquique (pronounced eye – key – kay) is also right beside the desert. In fact, above the town there is a giant sand dune that is used as a night time billboard! This place used to be boom town in the late 1800s and early 1900s due to nitrate mining.

I took a tour out to Humberstone, one of the old mining towns. This was an interesting history trip because you got to see how 'things were done' back in the day. The wealthy Brits who ran the mine literally worked the miners to death. Nitrate, which is used as fertilizer by normal people (and explosives by terrorists) is very corrosive.

Miners wore special shoes that were wrapped in layers of leather. Here's what the shoe looks like after it has been used. Just imagine what it does to your skin and your lungs. The owners didn't care and made millions off the backs of their workers. Humberstone is literally in the middle of nowhere, yet they had a grand theater (where the most famous acts from Europe would perform), a giant swimming pool, tennis courts, a dance hall, a hotel and houses that are better than what I have back at home. If you were an owner or worked in the administration, then life was very good. You don't even want to see where the miners lived.

To add insult to injury, they didn't even pay the miners money! Each mining company could print their own 'money' and the workers could only use that 'money' at the company store. Remember the old song “I owe my soul to the company store” - well that is what the lyrics are talking about. Mine operators paid the government to look the other way and about 40 of these companies sprang up. Fed up with the abuse, the workers from the different mining companies got together and gave a list of demands to the mine operators. They waited for a response, but they weren't expecting the one they got. Bullets killed over 4000 unarmed men, women and children in what would be one of the world's worst strike massacres in history. People got paid off and things kept right on going. The best thing about Humberstone is that it finally closed down in 1960 when artificial fertilizer was developed.

If you only have time to see one set of geoglyphs in Chile, then I recommend that you visit the Pintados Geoglyphs. Unlike most places, which only have a few designs, there are lots to see here. There are 4 kilometers of roads that wind around the hills displaying the glyphs.