Navimag

On Wednesday Nov. 5 we entered Chile from Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern most town of the world except for a small fishing community. We arrived in Puerto Natales, Chile for our Navimag adventure. Navimag is a cargo ship/ferry that starts in Puerto Natales and goes to Puerto Montt or vice a versa.

We boarded at 21:00 on Thursday to leave at 5:30 in the morning on Friday. The first day was fairly simple. We got a briefing on our trip that showed our route and safety rules. To pass time, we watched some movies, one of which was a documentary called Survival Island. It starred the wildlife of South Georgia Island, like penguins and albatross. The scenery was a lot like the west of Washington State, green with vegetation and cold with snow. Something different to Washington were the glaciers that went to the sea. The boat went off route so we could see one closer.

Saturday was similar until we entered the only spot of open sea, The Golfo de Penas, around 16:00. This was the very rough spot of the trip and lasted 14 hours. My mom and Sinclair both threw up but I didn’t, although at times I felt like it. We were sitting in the highest part of the ship, the pub deck, which had some tables that were constantly threatening to take us out by sliding across the floor. Because the ship was rocking too much, we weren’t able to have dinner so they gave us some rapidly made sandwiches. Since there was nothing to do, I slept the most of the time. Luckily, the rough spot ended around 4:00 the next morning. At breakfast the informers informed us that, on a scale of 1-12 for storms, ours was a 7.

The next day was our last day on the boat. Unfortunately mom was still feeling sick but she mustered up enough strength to play bingo and dance into the night. She won a bottle of Jonnie Walker Red Label whiskey and I got a Navimag information book for being the loser. Then we had a dancing fiesta!!!!!!!! When we arrived in Puerto Montt in the morning, we had to get off and say good bye to our new friends, 2 Canadians, 1 New Zealander, and 2 Dutch. For me, I would recommend it and it was nice not to cook or do the dishes. Some people said it was the highlight of their trip. It was fun, but it wasn’t my highlight. -CARSEN