Sometimes the”B” in Plan B stands for “Better,” and I think that was probably the case today. As I said yesterday, our itinerary called for us to visit the Chilean port of Punta Arenas, a city of nearly 150,000 residents, where Michele and I had booked an excursion to visit a large penguin rookery. I became a little concerned last night when the captain announced that the weather forecast for today called for winds of 35-45 knots, because our tour required us to get on a small ferry and cross the Strait of Magellan to get from the city to the rookery. On top of that, Punta Arenas is another port where it is necessary to use tenders to go ashore, so even getting to the city to reach our excursion ferry looked challenging.
Fortunately, as I cheerfully concluded in retrospect, the city took the matter out of our hands, closing the port to all shipping due to high winds and a forecasted nasty storm. This resulted in our cagey captain, who clearly saw this coming, implementing Plan Better, an unscheduled side trip down one of the Strait of Magellan’s remarkable fjords, where we were treated to jaw dropping scenery.
The fjord we transited lies within the Parque Nacional Alberto de Agostini, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that is considered one of the 24 most pristine ecoregions on the planet, and what we saw clearly justified that status. Like yesterday, the weather was wildly changeable, but we were spared the hurricane force winds, and the seas in the narrow fjord were very calm.
I’m going to let my photos do most of the talking, but I will say that if anything, the glaciers we saw today were even more beautiful than those we saw yesterday. Also, we were again treated to some gorgeous green water, and I did some research to find out why. It turns out that glaciers pulverize rocks into a fine powder called glacial flour, which gets into the sea through runoff streams. The glacial flour is so fine that it doesn’t sink to the bottom, but is suspended in the water, where it absorbs certain wavelengths of the sun’s rays, resulting in green or turquoise water. It delighted me yesterday and today, and I think it made for some great photography.
We won’t see dry land again until the 23rd, when we are scheduled to drop anchor at Valparaiso, well north of our current position, so I’m hoping for some good scenery along the way. If we do see anything interesting I’ll be sure to share it with you. Otherwise, I may use the sea days to bring you up to date on happenings on the ship, including some excellent enrichment lectures and evening shows.
But now for the photos I took during our Plan Better side trip down a spectacular Chilean fjord.
Just two of the many glaciers we saw on our Plan Better journey down a Chilean fjord.
Close up of one of the glaciers. Big mountains behind.
Too small to have much of a glacier, but wow, what a gorgeous peak.
There were peaks like this all along the fjord.
You can see how unhappy we were that we weren’t able to visit Punta Arenas.
Another awesome glacier. Notice the blue tint to the ice.
More jagged peaks.
One more. These views just take your breath away.
Then the sun peaked through. The weather can change on a dime here.
Look at all the waterfalls. They’re carrying the glacial flour that turns the water turquoise, green, or sometimes vivid blue.
One of my favorite photos. The scenery was amazing.
One last photo with a small glacier at the top, greenery and waterfalls lower on the mountain, and beautiful turquoise water. What a day we had!
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