There are only two sea passages in and out of Puerto Natales, Patagonia, both very narrow and treacherous. Each requires any ships to traverse exactly at slack tide. Today’s opportunity would be around 10 am.
But why shoot the channel on a ship when you can do it by Zodiac? So, yes, we dropped our Zodiacs at 9 am!
One Zodiac hovered in the narrows, observing the changing current and reporting back to the ship. The rest of us spread out and explored the labyrinthine channel, poking around and behind the islands. Andean condors soared very low overhead, while curious sea lions showed off for the photographers.
We gradually worked our way to the west entrance where we met up with National Geographic Endurance once she made it through. The wind had started to pick up, and we were happy to be back on board for a hot lunch with views of the channels and fiords as we wound our way west and then north for our afternoon landing.
The wind coming down Montañas Fiord was brisk and energizing as we hopped from the Zodiacs onto the gravel forming Bernal Glacier’s terminal moraine. This very pretty hike had a bit of everything, from tasty chaura berries and Magellanic fuchsias in bloom, to little forest birds and more than enough rocks to keep this geologist happy! We ended right at the ice face, one of the very few places in the world where you can safely get this close to a glacier.
