on the navimag...

It is amazingly comforting that the sounds of a ferry are nearly ubiquitous. I find the rumble of the navimag to be familiar and comforting. When reading the website, which I will admit was a minimal effort on my part, the acommodations sounded less than ideal but this was a part of the adventure! For my 420$ I would be fed three meals a day and sleep in a dorm bed with 42 other people.

The decision to do this trip is definitely one of my more spontaneous moments. While sitting on the beach in the wonderful town of Canoa frustrated by the lack of reliable bus information (buses are very reliable, information and time tables are challenging) I remembered some sort of boat in Patagonia. Realizing I have nowhere to be until feb 27 I thought, " why not take a quick jaunt to the bottom of the world...?" and a quick skype call and a half hour of Internet time I had done next to no research and some quick spending and returned to coco loco to pack up for an overnight bus.

The sleep one gets on an overnight bus is a bit liquid and gooey... Waking and dozing never certain which state is real.

To follow an overnight bus with an overnight flight is sure to cause some delerium. To be delirious and landing without a clue is less than ideal. On the final leg of my flight I sat next to a Chilean man who was quite helpful. I was reading my lonely planet guide for chile, purchased for 52$ in the Santiago airport along with my 7$ water, and I realized that Puerto Montt was not a nice place to be, even for one night of serious catch up sleep. The man next to me agreed with lonely planet and advised me to take a 20 minute bus to Puerto Varas.

A hostel was easily found, although expensive like all things in Chile. And I set about exploring the tiny town on lake villarca. Pto Varas is heavily influenced by German settlement about 125 years ago. The architecture is charming and the setting quite picturesqe. There is a good selection of German foods available and the desserts looked quite delicious. I enjoyed a lunch of pork chops, potatoes and saurkraut with a locally brewed German style beer. The first meal I have enjoyed since the parasitic invasion of my being!

So pto varas was a nice intro to Chile and I took the bus tp Pto Montt in the morning. I'll admit to having a bit of trepidation around the trip. After my rash decision I met up with some folks who did not quite enjoy the four days on navimag. In the book it says if the weather is bad it IS a miserable trip, and that if you have not arranged everything in advance you will be cold and hungry in pto natales with nowhere to stay. This has proven not to be the case.

Having wrestled with whether or not to go, I arrived at the terminal to discover it was delayed twelve hours... Loading at 11pm for a 4 am departure. What to do? Giving my area a listen I picked out some British people and proceeded to befriend two couples. To my great delight Lee and Emma are hoping to walk the W trail in Torres del Paine. They are also winging it and we will find equipment to rent.

The Navimag itself is a lovely ferry. The set up makes me think I was onto something with my ferry campus idea. The dorm beds are quite nice, lockers are ample, showers and toilets clean. And the food appears to be surprisingly good. Although...

I am ashamed to say that 2009 brought my first walmart excursion and 2010 as of today I have eaten my first farmed salmon. Not a moment to be proud of and pondering the travesty of salmon farming as I ate I could only eat about five bites. Chile would like to out perform Norway in salmon farming exports. It's heart breaking.

Arrival in Puerto Natales last night, delicious dinner in town. We rented equipment today and are leaving on a bus at 7:30 am.
more to come and someday some pictures too.