THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3 - Laguna San Rafael

When we open the drapes, we are anchored in an area called Paso Quesahuen after drifting about 200 miles down the Elephant Estuary. This area looks much like the Inside Passage in Alaska.

There is no town here. From here, we will transfer directly to locally run catamarans to make the 30 mile run through the shallow and sometimes narrow channels leading to Laguna San Refael and the glacier. It takes about 60 minutes each way.

 

Our purpose in coming here is to see the San Valentin glacier where it descends into the lagoon. It is some 200 feet tall where it fronts the lagoon’s eastern shore. The glacier is one of 19 that descend from the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, the largest mass of ice in the world outside the polar regions. It is the only one that is a tide water glacier in this area.

The weather is very changeable...on minute the sun is out and the next it is raining hard. On a clear day this must be a beautiful area. Since there are only about 60 days each year without rain that isn’t very often! As each rain shower passes, we have brief moments when we catch glimpses of the snow covered peaks that form one side of the waterway and lagoon.

On the way to the glacier they give a short talk on the area and the glacier while filling us full of pisco sours! When we get to the lagoon we can actually see the glacier as we enter the Lagoon. According to the guide, it was raining so hard this morning on the first tour, they couldn’t see a thing. It begins to rain hard as we get up to the face and the people who bale out first get soaked. After a few minutes the rain lets up so the view is better and fortunately everyone who elbowed they way out first are now soaking wet, cold and heading back in so the rest of us have a chance to see something. Dick gets a great series of a berg calving.

The blue of parts of the ice face are as deep a blue as we have seen anywhere.

As nice as it is, it still doesn’t compare to what we have seen in Alaska, not to mention Antarctica!

After a short time, about 20 or 30 minutes, we head back to the ship. On the way back we have more pisco sours and the same regional finger foods we had yesterday to snack on. We are also treated to singing and dancing from a local group.

The hour back passes fast and we board the ship just as lunch service is ending. Carolyn opts for the cold fruit soup and cob salad on the dinning room lunch menu while Dick goes on back to the room to try to get caught up on the blog and some email. We will lose internet service soon.

The ship is running two "cats" at a time on four tours. By the time the last group leaves they have gotten nearly an hour behind and it is after 5PM before the last group goes. We had tickets for that tour also..in case the sun was out it would have been great for pictures...no such luck so we pass.

The rain seems to have settled in for the evening and it is getting cold. The menu is Asian tonight so Dick enjoys the food. Fortunately they have Lasagna Bolognese as the pasta tonight so Carolyn is happy also. We set sail after 9PM in the rain for two welcome sea days.