Monday morning started off with a full English breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill. Sadly they ceased having the ability to make fried eggs and everyone else (literally, aside from me) was served poached eggs as the grill had broken.
There was a nice selection of excursions available in Puerto Chacabuco. We went on the “Patagonian Fjord Cruise & Hot Springs.” My mother went on “Patagonia Nature in Depth.” I haven’t debriefed with her yet but probably will tomorrow if you’re interested.
The Fjord Cruise was nice and you would think from the above that there were maybe twenty people on it. In reality, it was about 80 people. We tendered ashore, walked into the port building (which is smaller than my house), and sat in a room. At a certain point when no HAL tenders were coming in they walked us down the pier past the tenders to a catamaran.
Note – this is the first port where they took security seriously, both outgoing and incoming. I still didn’t empty my pockets though.
We took a nice cruise out through the fjord to Termas Ensenada Perez. This hot spring consists of three cement ponds that were built to collect volcanic hot springs. Two of the cement ponds were about 100 degrees Fahrenheit (30.5 C) in temperature; the third was about 104 degrees Fahrenheit (32 C) in temperature. They warned us not to spend more than 10 or 15 minutes in each cement pond and encouraged us to take a break by showering under the cold springs water (about 6 degrees C or 42 Fahrenheit). I only did this after sitting in the really hot springs.
This hot springs experience was great. We thought it had the opportunity to be a drag as it was over an hour ride out there and well over a ride on the return. We figured we might go out there and get bored after thirty minutes and then just sit on the boat and read, but we were wrong. We cycled in and out of the tubs four or five times; I stayed in the hottest one only briefly though at which point I went and successfully stood under the very cold mountain spring water for a couple of minutes. It was very therapeutic.
After the hot springs we went back on the catamaran and they took us around a national monument area (they had to serve us wine and drinks before entering the area, and then again after leaving the area). Coming south from Santiago the scenery was still spectacular; since then we have seen more so we may end up being a bit jaded.
The experience reminded me of visiting Milford Sound, New Zealand in 2015, and sitting on the back of a similar vessel listening to the diesel engines as most others had grown weary and were settling back into their seats with cocktails inside.
While we were in Chacabuco, we also strolled around a local shipwreck.
The Vina del Mar vessel is apparently Chacabuco village’s sole attraction. I don’t think there is much else within walking distance other than a few dozen homes, a mini-mart, maybe a small cafe or two, and a small hotel. All of the excursions largely went elsewhere.
But I liked Puerto Chacabuco itself more than Puerto Montt. It was a good day.
In Retrospect 