San Rafael Glacier & Aiken Park
This is my eighth post from the March, 2024 trip to Chile with Adventures Abroad led by champion empanada eater and all round great guy, Chris Tripodi. In the last post we cruised the waters of Lago Todos dos Santos and enjoyed the lovely German architecture of Puerto Varas in the Patagonian Lake District. After two days in Puerto Varas, we are on the move again as we fly to the remote settlement of Balmaceda on the Argentinian border some 715 kms. (444 miles) south of the Lake District. From here we will take a bus for the two hour ride to Puerto Chacabuco, a small village at the end Aysén fjord which will be our base for the next three nights. On our first day in Chilean fjord country we will spend an entire day cruising up the fjord to where San Rafael Glacier ends its journey to the sea from the Northern Patagonian Ice Field. While I’ve seen many glaciers in my time, I’ve never seen one close up from the ocean side. It should be a real exhilarating experience and I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
On day two in Puerto Chacabuco we’ll take a walk to a waterfall in Aiken Park followed by a traditional Patagonian barbecue. Let’s get started.
The journey from Balmaceda to Puerto Chacabuco takes just over three hours which includes a stop in the small city of Coyhaique which was founded less than 100 years ago. Apparently there was little interest in this area of Chile from the central government until the 20th century and the highway we are on leading to the coast only opened in 1986. Before then most travel was done by boat and the inland area was largely the domain of nomadic shepherds. Puerto Chacabuco is a rather forlorn place that only came about as the result of an older settlement, Puerto Aysén, becoming unusable due to a volcanic eruption in 1991.
On the map below you can trace our route from Balmaceda to Puerto Chacabuco. You can also see that this area of coastal Chile is a maze of islands and fjords that is virtually uninhabited. From Puerto Chacabuco you can see the route we will take tomorrow to get to San Rafael Glacier, first going west to the mouth of the fjord and then due south on the Canal Moraleda to Laguna San Rafael which is as far as you can go.
While Puerto Chacabuco might not be much to look at there is one major exception and that is the Loberias del Sur hotel that stands like a beacon at the top of a ridge overlooking the fjord below. It was, once again, one of the many great hotels we stayed at on this Adventures Abroad tour.
The owners of the hotel also provide the San Rafael Glacier experience and a visit to Aiken Park which we will do the day after the boat trip.
The next morning Alison and I got up early to explore Puerto Chacabuco on foot and with its fish plants and setting amidst the coastal mountains, it reminded me of some of the small towns in Pacific Northwest that once relied on salmon processing for their livelihood. The most interesting sight was the wreck of the Vina del Mar, a Scottish built coastal freighter that has been here since 1963.
The Voyage to San Rafael Glacier
As you can see the catamaran Aysen is a substantial ship and our group was but one of a number on this voyage, however, I believe we were the only non-Chileans aboard. There were a number of multi-generational families with ages from about ninety to less than a year and I got the impression that this was something that they had been looking forward to for a long time. Something like Canadians getting their first trip to the Rockies or Niagara Falls.
Now here’s the rub – it takes six hours to get to San Rafael Glacier and the weather is more likely to be bad than good. Reading reviews on Trip Advisor this would be a glorious six hours if the sun was shining and you could see make out the mountains, the glaciers and the potentially the wildlife. This is what it looked like on the day we travelled which I gather is typical.
A couple of times it looked like it might clear up, but that was being too optimistic.
But there was one nice surprise on the way to San Rafael Glacier. Most of these birds are gulls, but on the left side are a number of Magellanic penguins, a first for me.
Lunch was served at noon and around 1:00 PM we entered a very narrow channel that opened up into Laguna San Rafael and we started seeing our first small ice bergs.
As they became more numerous we could start to make out the remarkably blue cliff that is the end of the San Rafael Glacier. It is impossible to get a proper perspective of the glacier walls. From this photo they don’t look that high, but in reality these walls rise 70 meters (230 feet).
The Aysen anchored about a mile from San Rafael Glacier and before any tourists were loaded into zodiacs the crew went out on an ice collecting expedition. The San Rafael Glacier has the distinction of being the tidewater glacier closest to the equator and the ice it delivers for our after tour drinks is 30,000 years old!
While the crew is ice collecting the rest of us get prepared, donning our life jackets, gloves and hats.
At the same time as our group was getting ready, something I never expected to see without going to Antarctica was going on in the water near the boat. A curious leopard seal was keeping a close eye on everything by bobbing up and down as seals down. These bete noires of the penguin world are voracious predators that grow to almost 12 feet and will even attack fur seals, but their preferred diet is penguins. I had no idea they ranged this far north and apparently this was a rare sighting. For me, seeing my first leopard seal was a really unexpected bonus. The only problem is that every time I thought I had a good shot, the bugger would submerge. After playing a reverse version of whack-a-mole this was the best I could do.
There were basically three shifts in the zodiac, each lasting about 40 minutes. This was the first one out with the Chileans on board. As you can you’re packed in like sardines, but you won’t mind because of what you are there to see.
Most of our group was in the second tranche and we got to pass around pieces of the purest ice on earth.
It is impossible to describe in words the the sights and sounds of a glacier calving so I won’t try. I found this short video that gives just an inkling of the what you will see once you get close to edge of San Rafael Glacier and see the towers of ice groaning and then collapsing into the lagoon.
I’ve also created this small gallery of the photos taken while aboard the zodiac. Double click to open and double click again to enlarge.
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- Glacial Reflections
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- Creation of an Iceberg
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- Jagged Top of The Glacier
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- Green Ice
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- Pack Ice
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- Three Types of Ice
Back on board, Alison tried to hijack the ship to prevent us from leaving, but to no avail.
But alas, we did need to begin the long journey back, assuaged by scotch on the 30,000 year old rocks.
Now the trip back could have been excruciatingly long, but the combination of good food, fine drink and great company made it anything but. They started up a karaoke contest that got the tourists (us) and the local Chileans on very good terms.
I mentioned that there were some very young passengers and this is Alison playing with one of them, a very precocious little nina that charmed us all.
On the other end of the age spectrum, our Dottie had a dance off with a Chilean abuela.
It is a trite expression to say that a good time was had by all, but in this case it is entirely appropriate. If there was one time on this trip that I could say we got to know the spirit of Chile it was on the return from San Rafael Glacier.
Aiken Park
After a very long first day in Puerto Chacabuco, we took things a lot easier on day two. It is a 15 minute drive to Aiken Park, a 250 hectare private forest reserve that is owned by the same group that owns the hotel Loberias del Sur. We are dropped off at a small interpretive centre where we will follow this path through the Chilean forest to Barbe del Viejo waterfall not too far away.
The walking is easy, but we need to stop a number of times to pick up and remove cantaria beetles from the pathway so they won’t get stepped on. They look formidable, but are harmless to humans.
A species of stag beetle, the males use their long mandibles to wrestle with rivals for the sake of mating with one of the females. For every female beetle we find there seems to be a dozen or more males so this really is a case of survival of the fittest with only the best wrestlers getting to pass on their genes. Perhaps that’s why they are also called Darwin’s beetle. It’s little unexpected surprises of nature like this that turn what might be a fairly mundane walk in the woods into something truly memorable.
Aside from the fact that most male cantaria beetles will never get to mate, there is the fact that they are an absolutely favourite food of the huge trout that draw fly-fishing enthusiasts from around the world to the streams of Patagonia like this one. I found numerous websites offering fishing trips to Chile specifically around the cantaria beetle breeding season.
Barbe del Viejo waterfall translates to Old Man’s Beard in English and that’s pretty accurate. It’s an impressive sight that requires the photographer to stay well back in order to avoid getting mist on the lens.
From the waterfall the path leads to Aiken Park Lodge which has a large circular room with an open hearth fire at the centre.
If you are a vegetarian or vegan, please look away. If you are like me and absolutely love roast lamb then feast your eyes on this.
While the lamb was roasting we were entertained by a couple dressed in traditional Patagonian garb and performing some of the folk dances that go back centuries if not more. Then we were served the ultimate meat and potatoes meal washed down with some great Chilean red wine. It might be simple, but it was also simply great.
This was a perfect ending to our Patagonian adventure – Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, Torres del Paine, Patagonia Lake District and the San Rafael Glacier. Just wow!
Tomorrow we head north to the Atacama desert and experiences so different from those in Patagonia as to make it hard to believe it’s all in one country.