South America - part 14

Tuesday 27 January Puerto Chacabuco

 

We arrived about 7.00am before we were up so watched the bridgecam. The weather was wet! room service breakfast arrived about 7.20 and we finished dressing. We have to meet the group for our private tour in Mix Bar at 8.30 to get our tender tickets. It was only minutes before our tender number was called. 16 of us followed one of our group while the group organiser waited for the next tender. The tide was low and it was quite a step down into them and up at the other end. Once ashore we got the port shuttle to the main "square".
 

There we browsed the craft stalls in tents while we waited for our tour bus from Empatagonia, and waited and waited! I did manage to photograph one of four Andean Condors, soaring high above the mountains, and bought a felted collar and brooch.

Andean Condor

Slowly information began to trickle through that a strike by fish workers had blocked the road. The company had gone bankrupt and the workers had not been paid. Our bus couldn't get through whilst others could not leave.

 

It started to rain heavily and after much speculation and phone calls it turned out that all HAL tours were cancelled. We cancelled ours too and set off to walk round the town, such as it was. It was perhaps typical of these regions.

 

 

Rough unmade sidewalks, run-down houses, most with satellite dishes though. Lots of feral dogs roamed around us. All but one small supermarket seemed closed as did the cafes and restaurants. We saw two types of interesting birds, feeding on the ground and largely unconcerned by us. I discovered later they were Southern Lapwings and Chimango Caracara.

Chimango Caracara

Southern Lapwing

Finally we decided we may as well go back to Zaandam. My friend stayed briefly to buy a wall-hanging while I boarded the port shuttle and then the tender back.

The ride was smooth and disembarkation not too bad this time. As Ricardo was servicing our cabin, I walked round the promenade deck taking photos before going back to change. My friend was back so we popped up for lunch and then to a Unesco Trivia Quiz. After the sailaway, which we watched as there was a huge landslide to photograph, it was dinner, show and bed.