Puerto Chacabuco is the marine gateway for the Aisén region. And this has to be one of my all-time placename favs. Who doesn’t love to say Chacabuco!
It is also a delightful spot to visit, and we had a beautiful sunny day in the area. We arranged a tour with a local company (Puerto Chacabuco Tours) and, after anchoring in the fjord, tendered in and headed out with a few others from our ship.
Initially, I wasn’t clear why it was called the “Ice End” tour, but now I know it’s a play on the pronunciation of the nearby town Puerto Aysén. Because we left early, the temps were still in the low 40s, and fog had settled in the valleys for a very mystical appearance. Our first stop was the lovely Coipos Lagoon. It was nice to hear the distinctive call of the Chucao birds. The paths suffered from neglect, but the vista was pristine.
Nice to See Green
This is the most sparsely populated area of Chile, about the size of Tennessee, with just over 100,000 residents, most in the capital, Coyhaique. Puerto Chacabuco only has 1,200 residents. The region includes the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields (largest after Antarctica and Greenland), and we saw lush fields, wetlands, tall forests, lots of evergreens, and rugged, forested granite mountains. It’s an agricultural area, and there were plenty of cows, horses, sheep, hogs, and lots of big, fluffy dogs.
The privately owned Bahia Acantilada Park sits on a beautiful bay with a view of the Andes range. Park amenities left a lot to be desired, needing some serious maintenance. Back in Puerto Aysén,our driver literally stopped the van to chat with the mayor (everyone knows everyone here) and lodge a complaint about the faulty generator and lack of baño lights – lol.
We saw a number of rivers, including the well-known Rio Simpson, popular with fly fishermen, and Mañihuales. These and other rivers all flow into one another, ending up in the Pacific.
Falls & a Historic Bridge
A big attraction here is the Cascada la Virgen falls. I think everyone visiting the area was checking this out, and the small parking lot was jammed. At the shrine, there were copious flower arrangements and prayer donations. But as of this writing, I do not have a good explanation why this is considered a holy site.
My favorite stop of the day was a visit to the area’s oldest bridge, dating from just 1919. No longer passable by vehicles, it’s still (relatively) safe for pedestrians. Consistent with maintenance needs in the region, be prepared for missing boards, broken boards, unsecured boards, and unevenly spaced boards. In short, an accident waiting to happen. But I loved the middle-of-nowhere setting and beautiful river. Birds, including Ibis, were abundant.
Our captain has hoisted up the ship’s anchor 85 meters, and we are back sailing the fjords.
The amazing Amalia Glacier, at the end of the Sarmiento Channel in Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins National Park. Rapidly retreating, it’s part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
As the clouds shifted, once again, we were blessed with a rainbow.
View over Punta Arenas 
Trinidad
We are currently sailing through the inside passage of Patagonian Chile. Calm and scenic, it’s also cloudy and rainy, and I’m happy we don’t have to go anywhere outside today. I’m happy to simply stare at the passing scenery as it goes by. It’s a good time to catch up on a post about yesterday’s activities.
The Strait of Magellan
When Magellan sailed the Trinidad around the tip of South America and along its western coast, he went ashore at this sandy spot, securing its future for the next few centuries. Punta Arenas (Sandy Point) would become an important and thriving port until the early 20th century and the advent of the Panama Canal.
Today, it’s a community of 120 thousand that has suffered many rough economic times since the port’s prominence diminished. Its colorful buildings make it easier for families to find their homes during the winter months when deep snow blankets the area. Corrugated steel building material helps drain the melting snow in the spring. Winds are so strong here, city managers have ropes tied between light poles so pedestrians can hold on while walking between shops. Thankfully, on this day, the winds were calm.
Fuerte Bulnes 
We journeyed to the Parque del Estrecho (aka Magellan Strait Park) with its Fuerte Bulnes National Historic Monument and museum, located about an hour out of town. We drove the coastal road, passing dozens of beached fishing boats waiting for the fishing season to begin (King Crab season is July 1 – November 30). It’s a narrow and rocky-looking, low coastline, littered with a few of the many shipwrecks for which the area is famously known. In one section along the water’s edge, there are hundreds of small graves, which turned out to be a dog cemetery.
With a former geography professor as our guide, we had a terrific experience focused on the geography, history, environment, flora, and fauna. The historic fort was originally established in1843 and rebuilt a hundred years later. It includes a church, captain’s quarters, jail, powder magazine, stables, and barracks.
We took a really enjoyable walk through the park, learning about the plants along the trail, eventually arriving at Puerto Famine. It was a beautiful setting memorializing a horrific mass casualty in 1587, of an early attempt to establish a Spanish colony. The settlers perished from starvation and the harsh climate. There was only one survivor, eventually found by English Captain Thomas Cavendish, who named the site to memorialize his tragic discovery. On this day, we were welcomed by a spectacular rainbow stretching across the horizon.
The museum was small but had interesting displays about the famous sailing vessels during the age of discovery, the history of colonization, and a lovely photo display about the region’s glaciers.
A light misty rain began to fall as we headed back down the coast to our floating home away from home on the Azamara Quest.
We did make our ship! Our second plane was about two hours late arriving, which put a damper on my Plan B, but at this point, we were very happy to board our ship on time (not everyone was so lucky). We had just enough time for a short walk around downtown before spending a lovely evening on the Azamara Quest.
From Delay to Departure: A Day Along Patagonia’s Edge
Early the next morning, we pulled out for a day-long, chilly journey through the scenic Beagle Channel. The morning clouds and mist lifted as the wind picked up. The reward – a gorgeous blue sky. The dark, craggy Chilean landscape is accentuated by glaciers, pockets of snow, and waterfalls. The narrow Channel is 150 miles long and separates Argentina and Chile, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at the southern tip of South America. As we continued farther up the coast, many of the peaks looked more worn-down and rounded. It surprised us that on one side of the channel, the formations were also greener.
In case you are wondering, it got its name from Charles Darwin’s famous ship, the Beagle, which explored the area from 1833-34.
The reverse of our seasons in the U.S., it’s the end of the summer season here, early fall is starting, and winter is right around the corner. I find that pictures never really do dramatic landscapes any justice, but here are a few.
