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Today, I took a tour titled “A Glimpse of Patagonian Nature” and that’s exactly what it was along with some local singing, dancing and appetizers.
In a nutshell, we took a bus ride to a recently opened Aiken del Sur Private Park which is located on Riesco Lake which covers 14 square kilometers. Starting with a stop at the headquarters building, we donned waterproof parkas, viewed some dioramas and overview posters of the area and re-boarded the bus. We were then taken to the start of a nicely maintained path along which our tour guide pointed out local trees and other plants, birds and indigenous wildlife. It started raining right at the beginning of the walk and continued pretty much the entire time, heavy enough to make photography a challenge.
At one point we were able to view a river and just upstream there was a decent waterfall that made the situation even wetter. Feeling pretty soggy, we headed back to the bus with some of us getting in while others deciding to walk the remaining distance to the pagoda structure where we would eat, drink and dance. I went on the bus — this gave me enough time to dry off my lenses!
The entertainment facility was quite nice. It was new, had very nice restrooms and we were treated to many friendly associates who served us a constant supply of wine, soft drinks, beer and appetizers. The appetizers were quite good and ran the gamut from traditional puff pastries to skewers with freshly cooked lamb. We sat at tables with benches and a very large fireplace with a nice copper hood was located in the middle of the room. There were three large iron skewers holding up three lambs that were split open and barbecuing nicely. These were being cooked for the tour that was similar to ours — but ended up being 2 hours longer (or 2 hours wetter!). But, they stuffed us with enough food so our group was quite happy to have the shorter version.
During our stay there was a local band with three members playing guitar, bass and accordion and all of them sang. They were quite good! There were also five dancers, both male and female that would dance with each other and also get volunteers from our group to dance with them. Very entertaining! I opted to pass on the dancing but other passengers and some of the crew were out there cutting a rug Chilean-style!
After a 20 minute bus ride home we were back on the Mariner, too full of appetizers for dinner but I’m sure, like me, everyone managed to have a nice dinner on-board. All in all, the nature hike was pretty low key and not much to right home about, not to mention quite wet which is typical for this area. The finish at the pagoda was very well done and made the tour worthwhile. There is definitely more beauty in the Pantagonia area and we should see quite a bit of it right from our veranda on the Mariner in the coming days.
Puerto Chacabuco Picture Gallery: http://travelwithdm.smugmug.com/Travel/South-America/Puerto-Chacabuco-Feb-1-2010/25168289_mMTZHJ#!i=2064177757&k=4Q2SK2B