Navimag

Jonathan arrived safe and sound and ready to tour Santiago after his red eye down to Chile. That night we took a night bus to Puerto Varas, where we recoup for 2 days before taking the Navimag boat down to Patagonia. When I say ´recoup´ i´m being a little laxist there. We toured around the lake Los Santos the first day and went canyoning the second day....ie: jumping in rivers and waterfalls up to 8m high. Jonathan had no fear, always jumping from the highest point and showing off ´fancy´dives. I just closed my eyes and pinched my nose and jumped. It was good fun though, especially sliding down natural tobogans. The water was cold but we had thick wetsuits on from head to toe. To wrap up the day, we had to repel down a 30m cliff alongside a waterfall, spectacular setting, but with my fear of heights, I was almost having a breakdown as i was hanging in mid-air. Talk about pushing your limits.

At the hostal we met 3 other fellow travellers who were also going on the Navimag....two surfer guys from California...and a swiss girl....we ended up hanging out with them quite a bit over the next 10 days. The boat trip was quite an experience...the boat is a reconverted cargo boat... reconverted is loosely used though, as it´s still quite a modest set up. The sleeping accommodations are fine...big dorms for 320 people separated in groups of 4. J and I ended up sharing our ´cabin´with a nice italian couple. My short critic of the boat would be: need more lounge space and need more fun entertainment (so many missed opportunities to make it a really amazing experience). The landscapes end up being quite repetitive over four days, but still it´s fun to walk around the deck and feel like you´re the only ones left on earth...it´s so peaceful...well, except when we had to sail into the ocean before heading back into the canals... most travellers took sea sick pills...J and I thought we could tough it out...we were in bed by 8 trying not to get sick...ended up sleeping 12hrs and felt great the next am. Overall, it was just fun hanging out, reading, playing cards, and meeting some of the other passengers. J and I made it a mission to have our meals next to new people each time. Funny to see how humans are such creatures of habits... people formed their own little groups and within a day started to have their routines. Actually the greatest benefit of the trip was meeting everyone again as we were hiking in Torres del Paine... we kept bumping into everyone from the boat...felt like a game...amazing race meets survivor. Even now, we still bump into the ´boat people´as we call them....so many germans...only a handleful of french....feels like you know someone everywhere you go!