The Boat....September 18th - 22nd

All,I have just finished a pretty amazing voyage from Purto Natales in the very south of Patagonia to Puerto Montt in the Chilean Lake district. A passage of 3 and a half days on board the Puerto Eden. It is in fact a cargo ship, converted to carry passengers (as well as still carrying cargo). This means there is no proper passenger boarding ramp, so at 9pm last Thursday a group of about 30 of us gathered at the port. After a brief talk, we were led into the hold of the ship through the rear cargo doors and onto a large metal platform. It took me a second to realise what it was, but after looking up to the hole in the roof I realised we were actually on a truck lift! going up felt a bit like being in the opening credits of Top Gun! Too start with we all had to have a safety meeting in the dinning/common room, which was to become the hub of social activity for the next few days. Then we had an opportunity to get to know are fellow passengers. In total there were maybe 30, with i think 18 backpackers. Of the backpackers there was a mixture of a few brits, irish, french, italian, columbian, american and canadian. A really good group actually and we all got on really well (if somewhat helped by a generous amount of alcohol). The other passengers consisted of a few older travelers and a few chileans.The Friday was spent in the southern Fjords of Patagonia, where the ship passed through some channels, barely wide enough for it to fit with just a few metres left on either side. The nice thing about the ship, is that almost nowhere was off limits and we were in fact welcome to visit the bridge, chat to captain and have our photos taken pretending to drive the ship etc. The bridge was in fact one of the best places just to watch the scenery drift past at a very sedate 12knots. In terms of on board activities, they showed a couple of film a day in the dinning room, we just sat about talking or playing cards. Although there was a bar on the boat we were allowed to bring as much alcohol as we wanted onto the boat, so there was definitely a `merry`atmosphere amongst the passengers. Of course 3 times a day we would all get together for meals, the food was actually really good, and it was nice for everyone to get together round a couple of big tables.On the second day the weather wasn`t so good, and it was also the day that we would leave the shelter of fjords for 12 hours and enter the oceanic region...This is where we were open to the pacific and the big swells. By about 2.30pm most people were either sick or just lying in their bunks to stave off the seasickness. The only people still `standing`as it were were me and a guy called Jon. He has spent a lot of time as sea, in fact a lot more than me, so we were both quite happy to play cards even though we had to hold ourselves into our seats as the boat rocked from side to side. Dinner that evening was quite exiting as our trays would sometimes slide around on the tables. Most people managed to get some food down though and by about 10pm the seas had calmed enough that people even started drinking again!I woke up on Sunday to an amazing day outside. A clear sunny day and a very slight wind from astern, meant that there was very little wind over the boat. The boat had an open top deck above the bridge, so pretty much all the passengers spent the day sitting up there. Later i the afternoon, we got to visit the engine room, which of course for me was pretty exiting..!Come Monday, we were all turfed of the boat at 8.30 am, and by 9am Purto Montt bus station had a pile of rather hungover backpackers literally piled up in a corner. Seeing as i hadn`t done any of the planning I was meant to do on the boat, i didn`t really know where I was going to go next. Kasey, an American I had actually first met in El Calafate was gig to go to Pucòn, which had hot springs. This sounded a very good plan, so i jumped on the bus along with Nick (American), Gordon (Canadain) and Jon (Brit/Canadian) up to Pucòn.
O