Monday 1 March 2010

Puerto Natales

Our fourth and final day on the boat started with a hangover, of course. We skipped breakfast and for once I was the first to get up, to listen to a 10-o'clock briefing on the disembarking process.

Ewelina's hangover was much worse than mine, so after the briefing, when I got excited about the amazing views, she tried to fend off my attempts to drag her out of bed. Eventually I succeeded, in time so we could stand up front together as the ship navigated the narrowest passage of our trip, only 80m wide.

The currents made amazing vortexes in the water and again, we saw seal(ion)s leaping in the water and staring at the boat.

After the passage, we showered, had lunch and packed our bags. At 14:00 sharp, three bell-rings announced that we had arrived. We watched the docking and mooring process from on deck and were then the first tourists off the boat.

Our Navimag journey was over!

Good-bye boat, we wouldn't have minded staying on-board a bit longer. All the warnings in the guidebooks and online seem either outdated or princessy to us, it was a great trip. Still expensive, but although you'd expect better service for the amount we paid, the views and overall experience made it worthwhile. We recommend it.

...

Back on land, we returned to our regular routine. We walked towards the center a bit, I left Ewelina with the bags and found us a place to stay. And we sent SMS-messages home to let people know we were fine.

I was lucky and found us a good place: a spacious private room, kind hosts, our own bathroom, breakfast - and wi-fi, for 15000clp. Most places I visited were charging 25000 for less.

We spent the afternoon online, reassuring loved ones (and the Icelandic government) that we were unharmed by the quake, using Skype, Facebook and good old-fashioned e-mail.

Again the nerd in me was intrigued by the role modern social networking played in our little part of this event - my family and Ewelina's had found each other and people in three countries, speaking four languages, were helping each other find information about our whereabouts.

And now, the are "friends", in the new Facebook-altered meaning of the word.

Pretty cool!

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The past!