Okay.....so it wasn`t exactly a cruise ship but more of a cargo ship called the navimag which also had loads of cabins for people. Costing 200 quid in total it was a much better idea getting the navimag up through the Chilean fjords from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt, mainly because it was cheaper than buses (as well as being more scenic). Especially when 4 nights accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner were included.
Anyway, after our tired legs were recuperating following the W trek, 4 days on a boat relaxing sounded like heaven. With Leila and Mark opting for elsewhere on their travels, we were joined by Derek who had the same thing in mind. Leaving at 4am Tuesday morning, we had to go to a safety briefing Monday night and also board the boat that night to save time getting everyone on in the early hours of the morning. So on Monday night we were led to our navimag boat, and what a majestic sight.
Finding our dorm was a bit tricky, there were corridors leading all over the place but we finally found our numbers and made ourselves at home. It was pretty cool. Comfy enough bed, with a little curtain to pull closed so that you could have your own privacy. We also had a sound couple from Bristol in the other two beds called Rory and Fi who we would end up playing drinking games with.....surprise surprise!
Testing out the bed I wasn`t quite so impressed to see someone`s grafitti on the roof of my little area. I`m hoping it was someone joking or else I spent the next 4 nights in someone`s personal cesspit. Now I see what the privacy curtains were for.
Putting the fact that I would be spending a third of my navimag time in the former occupants personal pleasure pit behind me, we went and checked out the rest of the boat and were surprised to find that the boat actual had it`s own bar. Didn`t see that one coming, proved by the fact that we had smuggled on 3 bottles of Chile`s national liquor Pisco, and a litre box of wine. Good job too as the prices at the boat bar were pretty steep, it was almost 4 quid for a small bottle of beer, compared to the litre of Pisco we had bought for under 2 quid, and it was clearly necessary to have 3 of these bottles!
Having made ourselves at home on the boat, we decided to have an early night saving the drinking for the next night. This decision was also influenced by the fact that we all had to get up for safety briefing number 2 early the next morning.
The weather was alright for the first full day on the boat and the views were pretty cool. The first morning we would come through the narrowest channel on the stretch, where we saw some sea lions chilling out on a rock. The picture below is us approaching the narrow channel.
There were also other cool mountains and things to look at along the way.....but after a while it all got a bit similar, mountain after mountain lining the channels we were passing through. Good job we had a pack of cards to keep us entertained.
However.....I highly highly highly doubt that you made out the relevance of this picture, as we were lucky enough to see a whale doing it`s flappy fin thingy out of the water. About 500 metres or so away, it was a great show in eyesight, however it was too small to pick up on camera. You can actually just about make it out in the left of this shot but tis but a small blip. It was an amazing sight though with one person noticing it outside, the rest of the occupants were quick to catch on and rush outside to view the spectacle.
Come sunset though, it was even cooler with the skies producing some awesome contrast against the stark silhouettes of the surrounding landscape.
Time for bed after I taught them a lesson at how to play hands, only to be reminded about what I was returning to.....thanks mr graffiti man!
The weather would soon turn though hitting open water for the first time the next day, as it`s impossible to navigate a boat the whole way up the Chilean Fjords, meaning a slight detour into the sea for a good 8 hours before returning to the channels again. This however would prove the downfall of most on the boat....enter sea sickness! With a film being offered which we were excited about (March of the Penquins......a must see if you haven`t already) we gathered in the communal area only for Jen to last about 10 minutes before being forced to lie down in the bed for the rest of the night, the only way to calm the sea sickness. She had already been in bed for most of the afternoon and managed a couple of mouthfulls of food at dinnertime. I stayed up to watch the little penquin chaps with Derek, turns out penquins are resilient little animals, walking miles and miles to mate, through the harshest winters known to man, whilst starving themselves for 4 months. Sounds fun.
Grabbing an early night following the movie, not to leave Jen on her own (cos I`m just that nice) we tried to sleep as we were literally being thrown around from side to side in our little cabins. We found out the next morning that we had gone through one of the worst storms in a while through the night!
Waking up the next morning we were excited to hear that eggs were on the menu for breakfast.....however excitment quickly turned to dissappointment as the scrambled eggs which were served up literally looked like a pile of sick according to most, all I could think of though was the collective discharge over 4 days of the previous occupant of my bed. Now there`s a thought for ya! Jen and I opted to turn down these image provoking eggs however our mate Derek decided to go for it, not sure the pepper on top made much difference but he said they weren`t the worst eggs he`d ever had.
On the final full day the weather looked a bit better so I decided to rock the Leicester shorts option and t-shirt. Everyone else was wrapped up pretty warm but all real men clearly don their home teams shorts and a t shirt and that is all. Menly Men. With apple in hand I decided to float in the picture below.
Everyone was chilling out on the top deck, drinking wine, playing cards and giant chess and generally having a good time socialising.
We were even joined by massive jellyfish , passing them every 10 seconds at one point. This picture kinda just looks like a white blob (no I won`t make another reference to the graffiti) but trust me, they were massive jellyfish which were easier to make out when there.
Being the final night the navimag were keen to throw some entertainment our way in the form of bingo. Exciting yes but not so much when you don`t really know the spanish numbers. Luckily our tour guide would read them out in both languages. Sitting with our newly formed group of 8 (original Derek, Rory, Fi and the 3 others) we sat at a table playing drinking games til the bingo started. When it did begin, I got off to a great start getting the first 4 numbers, which would turn out to be about all I got. The navimag gave out awards for 1, 2, 3 and 4 lines and then the full board. I got nowhere, 1 line is all I got by the time someone made the whole board, who happened to be one of the girls we had met in our newly formed group. Fair play. Shame the prize was a navimag fleece that no one wanted.
Following the normal bingo, the guide introduced us to the loser game of bingo. First all women would stand up with the same board and you would be out as soon as you hit any number on your board. The final woman would have to dance with the final man who would do the same thing after the woman was found. With Jen hitting the first number called out (lucky her) she chirpily sat back down and enjoyed the show. With the random woman left behind it was onto the men. With plently of banter between the 4 lads in our group of 8, I was disgusted to see that 2 of them were out dead quick. With me and one other lad giving each other some stick I was gutted that he got out first. Forgetting that it wasn`t just a game between our table I looked around to see only 5 others in the room still in. Balls (and not the bingo variety). With our group finding it hilarious after another random bloke dropped out, the remaing 5 of us were pulled up to the front to finish the game off. Another person drops out...down to 4, poo. Another one drops out...down to 3, even bigger poo.
With my lot thinking this was the funniest thing ever, and me resigned to the fact that I was going to have to teach this room full of people how dancing is really done, a number on my board was drawn leaving me to chuckle my way back to my seat to the dissappointment of our lot, leaving a 1 on 1. The next number eliminated the other person and following a gentlemanly handshake between the 2 last men, the loser of the women and men were left standing like numpties at the front of the bar. Knowing what they had to do, they were not so pleased to hear gangnam style put on to dance to (making me even more happy I wasn`t left up there cos I f%$king hate that song). Strangly the bloke seemed to be in his element doing some amazingly camp dance moves to the laughter of the crowd. Good on him! Thinking he had deserved some reward, we were all sad to see on his behalf that his reward would also come in the form of a navimag jacket. Jokes on him.
After all that excitement, the music was turned back on for the obligatory end of navimag disco, which turned out to be pants with only the little kids on board dancing (one of whom grabbed my arm and tried to make me dance...no chance little kid a) because i was resuming drinking games and b) being labelled as a paedophile is no laughing matter is it Jimmy?), we got bored of the overly loud music as it was getting in the way of drinking games, so we went downstairs with our alcohol and continued our drinking game ways for a few hours.
Getting up early on the Friday we disembarked the boat, which felt weird to walk on actual land without swaying about. Arriving in Puerto Montt, the rumours we heard were true......that it was a dive. So we didn`t even look around, just jumped on a bus to Puerto Varas where our next adventure would begin.
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