After leaving the Beagle Channel last night and spending just a short time in the Pacific Ocean, we entered the Cockburn Channel to head for Agostini Sound that was named after the Salesian priest who worked with the indigenous people in the first half of the 20th century. The sound was surrounded by numerous glaciers and mountains with ragged peaks. This morning the ship headed to Aguila Glacier that was 172 nautical miles away.
After we disembarked from the zodiac boats around 9, we hiked along the shore of the lake toward the base of the glacier. We saw an Andean condor gliding in the sky but I wasn't quick enough to capture a photo of the magnificent bird unfortunately.
Aguila Glacier was retreating very slowly so it was 'able' to have a primitive forest by it. Our guide said calving on this glacier was rare but when it does happen, it occurs on the left side of the glacier. In front of the glacier was a calm lake that was a mix of salt and fresh water.
Kelp was everywhere on the shoreline by the forest.
Ribbons on some of the bushes were indications of experiments undertaken by scientists who regularly monitored the bushes.
Other passengers from our ship - they were led by another crew member.
Our guide, Nicholas, told us that the cannelo tree was considered as a sacred tree for the indigenous people and they performed secret ceremonies around it. The tree was also used to make medicines and infusions, as well as used by sailors to combat scurvy.
Never did I expect to traipse through a forest so near a glacier!
Wild celery:
Though it was rather dreary once again, it was warm and I only needed a light windbreaker.
Although we had been mesmerized by the sheer beauty on our Antarctica cruise just a few days earlier, Patagonia was absolutely gorgeous as well.
As we walked back along the shore away from the glacier, we heard a mammoth boom as a small piece of the glacier calved and fell into the lake. Most people in our group then stopped right away, hoping against hope we'd catch sight of it happening again. We waited several minutes but were out of luck, darn it!
Our ship, the Stella Australis:
More kelp!
After a really enjoyable two hours ashore, we were back on the ship where it sailed for another glacier.
In the afternoon, it was back on the zodiacs for our second-to-last excursion ashore as we headed for the end of the narrow fjord where Condor Glacier was located, just two nautical miles from Aguila Glacier.
These sort of chunks of ice had been called 'brash ice' in Antarctica - I don't know if that name was unique to only that area or also applied to what we traveled through in this part of Patagonia. Thank goodness, the zodiacs had a 'thick skin' as the mini icebergs made lots of noise as the boats weaved in and over them. I don't recall it was unduly bumpy, however, just the crunch, crunch sounds!
The waterfall made a thundering noise even from the zodiacs who had been kept a safe distance away.
We hadn't had many blue skies for days so seeing our last glacier bathed in the sun made all the difference!
Hermann was our favorite guide on the Patagonia cruise as he was so knowledgeable and passionate about the region. His command of English was also far superior to most of the other guides which made his talks even more enjoyable!
See how remarkably clear the piece of ice was he picked up - if it had been a platter, I would have bought it in a heartbeat because of its mountainous shape!
Boo hiss - no more sun.
The boatman paused near the rocks so we could look more closely at Imperial Cormorants, large birds and great divers who migrate within Patagonia. They lay one to two eggs a year.
Local fishermen had set out traps for king crabs by the rocks.
Zodiacs took turn ferrying passengers back to the 'mother ship'!
After we got back to the ship, we were invited to tour the engine room in the bowels of the ship. I was curious to walk through but Steven wasn't. Like everything else on the ship, it was immaculately clean with nary a spot of dust or grease anywhere.
There were three generators, each with 1500 horsepower engines, and a huge saltwater tank in case there was a fire on board that had to be put out.
Lying on one of our beds basking in the sun and taking in the marvelous scenes outside was a darn near perfect way of spending the late afternoon!
Photos from the Strait of Magellan as we made our way north to our final destination of Punta Arenas the next morning.
Following the raffle, there was an auction of the navigation chart used during the ship's journey to Cape Horn. You may recall from an earlier post I saw the chart that had been signed by the captain the only time we were allowed on the bridge.
The chart was paraded around the passengers to drum up excitement. Lots of people were interested and bid on it until the price went higher than all but three passengers felt comfortable paying. The woman in gray and the couple to her left were the last ones bidding and clearly the three of them wanted it as they kept raising each others' amount.
The woman was from the Czech Republic and the couple was from my native Canada. The couple told Steven they had a place set aside in their home for the map if they could outlast the woman.
I am sure you can imagine the excitement from both the crew and passengers witnessing the auction as the two bids kept increasing by hundred dollar increments until the couple finally decided to bow out when the woman bid a whopping $1800 for the map! Nicholas, the auctioneer, stated the money would be divided among the crew so I'm sure they celebrated their windfall that night!
Our last night on our last cruise, that is until we travel with friends to the southern Caribbean in September.
We were very lucky that Stefan and Marion from Austria and Shawn and his wife from Taiwan had been selected to eat all the meals with us as we had so many fun times chatting at mealtimes as well as participating in some of the shore excursions together. We have kept in touch with Marion and Stephan since the cruise and hope our paths will cross one day again on either our side of the pond or theirs. Unfortunately, we didn't exchange information with Shawn and his wife as it would have been really neat seeing them in May when we visit Taiwan for a couple of weeks as part of our Asia trip.
A chocolate 'bonbon' was our final dessert - what a way to go!
Next post: The end of the cruise and our last excursion but at least we saw lots of penguins!
Posted on January 7th, 2020, from suburban Denver.
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