Puerto Chacabuco

Sunday, February 3
Weather:  97º F, Sunny

The tiny town of Puerto Chacabuco, with just over 1,000 residents, sits at the head of the Aisén Fjord. Even residents will acknowledge that there isn’t much to see in the town itself, which only recently bothered to put up street signs; the largest building is a fish-processing plant. 

Although most of our tours were arranged independently and booked long ago, I chose this port to do a ship tour. We had a considerable amount of onboard credit that I wanted to use but a couple of months prior to the cruise I noticed the tour I was interested in had only a few spots left. Puerto Chacabuco was one port where I knew we needed something planned so I went ahead and reserved our spots and paid in advance by credit card.

Closer to the start of the cruise I noticed that Holland America had added a second group for our tour at a later time and there were openings available. I called the shore excursions department to find out just how many openings there were available. I explained how I wanted to use our credits but was afraid to wait to book onboard and find out the tour was full. The representative thought there was a good chance we could cancel and rebook onboard, but there was no guarantee.

Later that same day the same HAL representative called me back and said she had talked to her supervisor and had gotten special permission so that I could just cancel and rebook our same tour once we got on the ship...even if it had filled up. She was even nice enough to send me an email confirming this arrangement. I was impressed with the extra effort she went through. (And this wasn't the first time HAL has stepped up and given special service to us!)

Our cabin was just about as far away from the Lido buffet as possible and I knew it would be packed at the time we wanted breakfast so to save time we ordered room service. Kent and Laurel had booked an independent tour for the day although our paths did cross at one point.

Our tour, Northern Patagonia & Coyhaique City, was scheduled to meet in the theater at 8:05 am. One plus to having a ship tour for a tender port was not having to stand in line for tender tickets. We had a short wait after meeting in the theater and when our tour group was called we were taken down to A Deck (one level below our cabin.) Luck was with us as we were one of the last onto the tender and the first off. We also got seats at the front of the bus for our tour which gave us extra time at each stop compared to those sitting in the back. 

The location of our cabin was very convenient on port days...other times...not so much.

Our tour first went to the Simpson River Reserve and we had 40 minutes to walk the trails. The reserve was beautiful and Bob was wishing he had hours instead of minutes to explore. Just as we were heading to our bus, we met Kent and Laurel arriving with their tour.

Our guide, Barbara, did an excellent job in spite of a faulty microphone and some rather rude people on the bus.

I wasn't sure Bob was going to continue the tour...he could have stayed here for hours.

Some of the flowers we saw in the park.

The city of Coyhaique was about 50 miles away and the drive there was the highlight of the tour. So beautiful! As we drove over the Andes to get to Coyhaique the landscape changed from lush green to more browns and yellows due to the change in climate.

The name of this giant rock formation was "English Cake"

The city of Coyhaique was much larger than we were expecting. The bus dropped us off at the plaza and there were a few craft vendors set up, but most of the business in town were closed because it was Sunday. Our guide, Barbara said restrooms would be available there and I desperately needed to find them, but when I did...they were also CLOSED. Yikes!

The city of Coyhaique in the valley.

A few vendors selling items in the square.

A Monkey Tail Tree (sometimes called a monkey puzzle tree)

Closeup of the Monkey Tail Tree

A type of plum tree.

Bob had to try a sample...he said it was pretty good.

Barbara told me there would be restrooms available at the bus station two blocks away and was nice enough to walk with us. The cost to use the facilities was 200 CLP. I had a 500 peso coin and Barbara took care of paying and getting change for me. The restroom was pretty rustic (a nice way of saying "nasty") but at that point I was still grateful. Barbara apologized over and over for the poor conditions.

My bathroom search pretty much used up the short time we had in Coyhaique but I'm not sure what else we would have done anyway. From there we were driven to a restaurant...or perhaps an event center...on the outskirts of town. Tables had been set up with all sorts of small samples of Chilean food and also Pisco sours, red and white wine. The restaurant was in a beautiful valley surrounded by snow covered mountains and tall, steep cliffs.

Cheers! 

It didn't matter which direction you looked...

...the views were gorgeous in all directions!

A lake we passed on the way back to the ship.

The ride back to the port took quite awhile because of road construction but seemed even longer because the AC wasn't working and the windows didn't open. Did I mention that the temps were in the upper 90's!?

The highways were made of bricks instead of pavement because of earthquake activity.

There was a line for tenders when we got back. Tendering does make getting on and off the ship more complicated but gave us such a great view of the Zaandam sitting in front of the snow covered mountains...a photo opportunity not possible when the ship is docked.

    
Bob and I sat outside on the lower promenade deck for a bit and then it was time to shower and get ready for dinner. I got "first shower" while Bob stayed outside and dozed. (Just typing this makes us sound like such old people!)

Our travel agent had gifted us with a free dinner at Canaletto...the Italian specialty restaurant on the ship (usually a $15/person charge.) The restaurant is an extension of the Lido buffet during the day but separated in the evening. As we were being seated, I asked the hostess if it was possible to have a window seat. I could tell by her expression that the answer was probably "no" but she whispered something to the maître d' and he led us to a table with seating for six. He seated us facing a large semi-circle window which gave us a fabulous view as we ate! (After their tour, Kent and Laurel chose to eat at the buffet rather than sitting alone in the dining room.)

Our table with panoramic views.

I had downloaded the map of Chile on my maps.me app on my phone and as we ate, we followed the ship's progress through the fjords. We tried to identify the small islands we were passing and guess which route the captain would take to reach the open waters where we would be sailing during the night.

The food was very good, but we ordered too much. Our server spoke with such an accent that we were confused on how to order. Thinking we were getting some of the dishes to share, we each received our own portion! Our meal was salad (Bob got the Canaletto salad and I got the buffalo mozzarella salad), seafood soup, shrimp ravioli, and our main course was chicken Parmesan which was the "daily special."

Amuse bouche.

The Super Bowl game was being shown on a large screen in the main theater and we got there at the end of the pregame show. Kent and Laurel were already there. For ONLY $89.95!! we could have purchased seats in the Wajang Theater instead. Only 25 spaces were available and the offer included all you could eat or drink. 

But...seats in the main theater were readily available for free and included popcorn and snacks...nachos, mini corn dogs, and slider-sized BBQ sandwiches. After our big dinner, we were too full to even sample anything. The volume of the game was incredibly loud and the commercials were at an even higher volume. Since the game was coming through on a satellite feed, the "real" commercials were not shown (the best part of the game!), instead we watched the same few commercials advertising sporting events over and over and over. Neither of us are football fans so by halftime we called it quits and went back to the cabin. 

After only two ports, I was already looking forward to the sea day coming...