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FERRY GOOD ADVENTURE
Having survived the fish supper, we boarded the ferry (which used to be a cargo ship) which would be our home for the next four days, not entirely sure what lay ahead of us over the next 1500km. Emma, for one, was dreading it because she understood cargo ship to mean container ship and thought we'd be huddled into a corner on some massive super tanker. We came armed with seasickness pills in case of bad weather and lots of fruit in case of scurvy, oh, and plenty of local wine to keep us company. The ferry used to be a cargo ship because the feeling was that only hardy lorry drivers would be prepared to brave four days at sea travelling to the middle of nowhere. We half expected it to just be a greasy transport caff on water but it's clear that lots of tourists have realised that this is a great way of exploring a previously unchartered part of the world, so the ferry company has spruced it up a bit. But, still, it was really only a floating youth hostel.Part of the reason for our apprehension was the absolutely dreadful weather that we had encountered when we first arrived into Puerto Montt. It had been bucketing down for hours on end, and several people we met there before we set off on our own trip had horror stories about how choppy their various boat rides in the region had been, or just how depressing, as they'd hardly been able to see twenty metres ahead of them and could only imagine the beautiful scenery around them. But as we set sail, the sky was perfectly blue, the sun was shining and our sense of excitement about the journey ahead of us began to mount. Our cabin was very small - two sets of bunk beds and just enough space in the middle for two people to stand upright, if they breathed in. We shared it with a friendly Swiss couple, although our conversations were hindered by the fact that our French seems to have been almost totally supplanted by Spanish, so we ended up talking a bizarre Franspagnol. Still, we managed to get on fine and the tiny cabin was surprisingly cosy. Now, 1500kmn is quite a long way, particularly when a journey of 26 miles across the Channel can seem like an eternity. But there's a big difference between a short hop to France and a journey down some of the world's most scenic waterways. We settled in quickly and, apart from the very unfunny German wannabe comedian who was the guide on the ship (yes, they had guides, it was quite a long way from the scary container ship initially envisaged), the days passed very pleasantly. It's amazing how easy it is to pass the time reading, sleeping and occasionally popping out on deck to watch the odd iceberg passing by. Drinking wine is also pretty helpful in this respect. From time to time we'd be roused from our slumber by an announcement over the loudspeaker that the 'dear passengers can now see a dolphin on the starboard side', although by the time we'd worked out which side was starboard Flipper had moved on. For the most part the journey was down inland fjords, but there was a 12-hour stretch when we were out at sea in the Pacific and the ship was rocked violently. Watching people trying to carry their food-laden trays at lunch was quite amusing, but by dinner-time numbers had dwindled as people took refuge in their cabins, and there were several green faces about. We took seasickness pills and visited the bridge, where the lovely officers told us that the pills were all psychological. That's as may be, but we weathered the choppy seas with no ill effects. Evening entertainment was a far cry from cruise ship standard, but full marks for effort - one of the crew doubled as the ship's crooner and belted out his own 'idiosyncratic' versions of Imagine, Hey Jude, Another Brick in the Wall and Guantanamera. The last night party in particular was exceptional. First off, we played bingo, which we're generally big fans of but this time the boards were a little temperamental, so when Emma thought she had won and ran up to collect her prize in front of a big room full of people, it turned out that the board had been knocked so numbers were marked off when they hadn't been called. Embarrassing, but when the people who then won were made to dance in public, we realised we'd got off lightly. Speaking of dancing in public, the disco that followed was pretty special. There was big groups of Australians and Germans who had been drinking all day, and who needed no encouragement to get up and strut their stuff to Grease Lightning as soon as the bingo finished. We sat at the back of the room, chatting to a new friend about his incredible journey driving from Alaska right down through the Americas to here, approaching the southern tip of Chile. We were busy dissecting the Australians' dubious dancing skills, when our wedding song, Living on a Prayer, came on. Well, we were of course duty bound to get up and dance, but a day of drinking wine and a rocking boat combined to make it a pretty dismal performance, and our new friend was far from impressed (not to mention incredulous at the fact that we'd chosen it as our first dance). Anyway, we were being flippant about Flipper. We did see dolphins, several of them, several times, and that's not all. The scenery really was incredibly spectacular and made the journey absolutely brilliant, a massive highlight of our trip. We also saw a massive, beautiful, glacier, and some great waterfalls. At night, the stars shone brightly and there was a full moon , which reflected on the water and which we spent a good half an hour trying to capture on camera. When we embarked on our journey at Puerto Montt, we could see three snow-capped volcanoes, and that was quite special, but as the journey progressed, so the scenery became more impressive. On the last morning, the sky was perfectly blue again, and we were surrounded on all sides, as far as the eye could see, by snowy mountains and flowery hills, and several rainbows, all really picturesque. By this time we had found our sea-legs, made some friends and become totally accustomed to the long lazy days watching the world passing by. We arrived into Puerto Natales ahead of schedule, docked and watched the lorries unloading, very sad that such a fantastic journey had come to an end.
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