11/26: Patagonia's Pia & Garibaldi Glaciers

Views from our cabin window of Agostini National Park as we cruised through part of the Chilean section of Patagonia for four days immediately following our ten-day cruise through Antarctica:

After we left Wulaia Bay the night before, the ship resumed its navigation across the Beagle Channel to enter the Pia Glacier, named after the princess Maria Pia of Savoy, the daughter of the king of Italy.

With a temperature of 44 degrees, we left at 9 on the zodiac for a shore excursion on Pia Glacier, that the expedition leader described as the most spectacular of the Darwin Mountain Range. 

Nicholas, our small group leader, said he hoped we’d see 'calving' or falling ice on the very active glacier. He mentioned that calving was likelier to happen when it was cold out because frozen ice expands which causes part of the glacier then to tumble down into the water.

The 1.2 km wide glacier had tones of black and brown which came from when the glacier picked up dirt as it moved. The lower the rate of oxygen in a glacier, the bluer it will look.

The terrain in front of the glacier was very rocky. The glacier had been eroding for a long period of time. There were both metamorphic and quartz rocks everywhere we looked.

We heard an enormous boom and saw calving occur but I wasn’t fast enough to whip out my camera and take photos of chunks of ice falling. I took this photo just after the calving!

Just next to Pia Glacier was Sinus Glacier, aka the Ugly Glacier for obvious reasons! Though we could only see a small part of it from where we stood, the glacier extended like a serpent along the mountains for 17 kms. 

Nicholas stated there were six thousand glaciers in Patagonia but only a fistful of them have been studied. I wish I had thought then to ask why certain glaciers had merited being studied.

The fjord by the glacier was very deep as are all fjords located in close proximity to glaciers. Its color was from the sediment thrown by the glacier and because the sun can’t pierce the murky water. As a result, there was a limited chance of seeing wildlife near the fjord.

We then began a steep ascent of the rocky terrain to reach the Lookout Point as that was the excursion we’d signed up for! I was very glad that there were plenty of ropes to hang onto as we kept climbing upwards because it was difficult to get a footing on the rocks. 

Part of the way up, Nicholas stopped to show us the granite rocks that had been brought by the glacier but were only located a considerable distance up from the shore. 

At Pia Lookout we had a panoramic view of the majestic glacier, one of the most active in Patagonia. Watching the clouds roll in was a little spooky as they just enveloped or seemed to swallow the glacier.

You'll have to wait until the next post to find out what this plant was!

You can see by my having shed a couple of layers it was pretty warm out or I was just hot and sweaty from the vigorous exercise after climbing up 48 meters above sea level! Those relatively few passengers who had chosen to go on the Boulders Excursion had a much harder and faster trip as they ascended to 110 meters above sea level and were inside the forest the entire time with hardly any views of the glacier. 

The crew had thoughtfully prepared hot chocolate and whiskey on shore as a reward for completing our hike – what a treat for Steven!

We were back on the ship at 11 after a very windy crossing on the zodiac. My jacket would have been better on me rather than tied around my waist!

Views en route to Garibaldi Glacier after lunch: 

Our company’s sister ship, the Stella Australis, passed us en route to Ushuaia from their starting place at Punta Arenas, which was our final destination in two days. The captains acknowledged each other by honking their horns to say hello! We were glad we’d chosen the northern route from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas as the sister ship had been built in 2010 compared to ours being just two years old!

Later that afternoon, we moved west in the Channel and dropped anchor in the Garibaldi Fjord which was 25 nautical miles away. Unfortunately, the trip ashore was only suitable for 20 passengers wanting to make the strenuous and technical hike to the waterfalls that involved walking across some rivers only in their hiking shoes. 

I thought it very strange and shortsighted that no attempt had been made by the crew for the vast majority of passengers who, like us, didn't feel comfortable taking a chance on that challenging excursion or had the proper footwear to participate in a shore excursion in the afternoon as we had nothing to do except to look at the glacier from the ship. The ship also strangely didn’t provide any boots unlike our experience on our Antarctica trip.

We contented ourselves admiring the panoramic view of the beautiful Garibaldi Glacier from the decks. The glacier was one of the few in Patagonia that was growing in size.

The captain was able to negotiate the ship 180 degrees in the narrow fjord so we had marvelous views of the glacier from every angle. We appreciated that but would have preferred to have also gone on a shore excursion somewhere rather than simply being on the boat all afternoon. 

Two zodiacs returning from the waterfall tour:

It was easy to understand why Patagonia has been called the second paradise. The origin of the name Patagonia arose from the people the explorers met who were so tall and therefore called them Patagonia.

There was an amusing presentation before dinner on marine knots.

It began raining in the late afternoon and continued all evening so we were relived we’d gotten out in the morning for a shore excursion.

Another artfully prepared dinner:

There was an evening talk on the Magellan Strait that appealed more to me than to Steven so he retired for the evening and I stayed up half listening to the talk and knitting another mindless afghan square. The map showed the first circumnavigation of the world which took place from 1519-1522. After the closing of the Silk Road and the fall of Constantinople in 1453, new navigational routes had to be found to transport spices that had become so important in gastronomy. Portugal and Spain controlled the world’s commerce known at that time. Ferdinand Magellan requested that the new Spanish king authorize sponsorship of a voyage to the first circumnavigation of the world from 1519 to 1522. It was sad learning that 800 shipwrecks and 10,000 souls have been lost off coast of Cape Horn.

It took the explorers 27 days in 1520 to cross the Strait of All Saints that ultimately became known as the Strait of Magellan. In 1520,  Magellan was the first explorer to see penguins which he named a “stupid goose” because it sounded like a donkey! 

If you click on the photo enlarge it, you will see on the right hand side Palawan and Brunei - those are two of the places we will be visiting on our upcoming trip that begins on March 1st and, at this point, will end about the end of June!

Next post: Visiting Aguila & Condor Glaciers in Alberto Agostini National Park. 

Posted on January 5th, 2019, from home in Denver as we spend many hours a day planning our next adventure as well as trying to find time writing about and recalling our last adventure!