Caleta Olla to the Garibaldi Glacier: Wednesday – Feb 14, 2007
It’s Valentine’s Day and Phil gave me a beautiful pair of earrings from Ushuaia. What a guy!
As a follow-up to yesterday, by 10PM, Kyle and Kyle had not radioed to be picked up from their hike–thank goodness we were in radio contact–so Captain Toby set out in the tender to try to find them. Apparently, once night fell, they were unable to see where they were going and basically got lost–though being guys, they will never use that word. Toby looked for them for an hour or more and although they could see his flashlight and communicate by radio, they never could meet up because of the distance involved. Toby smartly decided he didn’t want to spend the night off the boat in the cold and dark and so before he got lost too, he returned to the tender and then to Indigo. The boys were able to light a fire–they had a lighter because they had planned to smoke cigars when they reached the glacier–and they just stayed in one place for the night, which was rather cold, but since they are both from Canada, they refused to admit they had been cold even though Kyle the engineer was dressed in shorts and sandals with just a fleece jacket. Ah, youth! When the sun came up, they were able to see their way to the shore where Toby picked them up. All’s well that ends well and they were never in danger. Phil now calls them “Lost and Found” though we’re not sure which is which.
About 8:30AM or so, we left this area and continued along what I came to know as the Avenida de los Glaciers, a series of glaciers named for various European countries. There was lots of ice (small pieces mostly) in the water and we saw lots of little magellanic penguins standing on the ice and playing in the water. They also played in the wake of the boat as we cruised along. There are lots of glaciers in this area and they are very big. Near the Romanche glacier, there was a huge waterfall that started way up on the top of a mountain. The mountains here are rugged and craggy and about 3-4000 feet high and most of them are snow-capped. It’s a beautiful area and I felt like we were the first ones ever to be here. But there is no way you could really live here.
We had lunch while looking at three glaciers right in front of us with a huge field of ice around us. The sun was shining on the glaciers, the sky was blue and the weather was so clear–it really looked like a postcard instead of something real. About 4:30PM, we got to the Garibaldi Glacier, which was probably the biggest one we saw–or at least it looked like the biggest one to me. It was calving and the noise was huge and we took the tender right up to it. What an experience! Toby and Geraldine went out in the tender when we got back and Toby actually stood on a piece of iceberg–he’s braver than I am. When we first arrived, another boat (Karima) was there and there were people in the water, if you can believe that. Sure, they had on wet suits or dry suits or something but still that water was COLD.
We anchored off a little island near the glacier and had dinner while sea lions frolicked in the water and on little spits of land right by the boat. I am so lucky to be experiencing all this.