Navimagtastic

After a day´s delay we are finally off on board the Navimag, bound for Porto Natales, our romantic honeymoon cruise!

Boarding is via the vehicle entrance and then we are hoisted up on a moving platform, we are all a bubbling with the usual excitement that befits a trip on a calmac ferry. Of the 29 passengers, one passenger is already on crutches and we are having fun trying to figure out who speaks English and who we have spotted looking bored in Peurto Montt (yes we were so bored in Peurto Montt that we played "spot the navimagger", we did not too badly) . Our room on board is very comfortable, a Port view so we can see all the Chilean land mass when out at sea, a reasonable sized shower and toilet with one free bunk - we are sharing with a Spanish chap, Enyatti. It seems that we are allowed to wander all over the rest of the ship but most of it is simply filled with Cargo and not that interesting, however there are a couple of sun decks on the top that provide fab views and a luxury lounge and dining area. All looking good!

Sadly the entire journey turns out to be rather dull weather wise but not experience wise, some rain but for the most part dry however the cloud only lifted at night so the sights of the mountains we were hoping for did not manifest themselves. We could see up to 200-300m up the hills and what could be seen looked lovely. The journey takes us through loads of fjords, many of which come down to only 100m or so wide, with the narrowest channel giving the boat only about 20m on each side, with the mist down this was quite impressive navigation by the captain. Although the cloud was down we were still able to spot lots of sealife in the waters, with Dolphins playing alongside us, sealions and seals playing in the waves and sea birds swooping down to pick up fish. One of our fellow passengers, Luke, is a twitcher and spotted over 60 different types of birds as we passed through the narrows.

Having been travelling in virtually no wind for the entire journey arrival at Porto Natales and the wind has got up. Blows away the clouds so the port is looking fabulous with the high mountains all around, however it also means that we cannot dock. Arrival at 11am and not able to make the last 50m until 5pm, what a pain!

Next highlight, Torres del Paine, Chile´s number 1 national park - Woo hooo!