I'm on a boat!

Day 1 on the boat.

Last night, after the long day in the park, I showed up for check-in, on time, and ran into Eva and Alex again at the Navimag office. Since dinner would not be served on the boat that night, the three of us headed back to La Ultima Esperanza before boarding at 9pm. The owner of the restaurant recognized me immediately! I ordered the conger eel again, although I tried to shellfish sauce this time, because it was delicious and the price was right. Alex and Eva tried a seafood soup, king crab casserole, and albacones, which are these weird-looking shellfish, out of what looks like an oyster or clam shell, but it’s huge and a totally different texture. Poor Eva got sick from something in the soup, she thinks, and I felt so bad for recommending it! I know it’s not my fault, but still!

After dinner, we received some quick instructions from the Navimag staff and boarded the ferry. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my “shared” room was, in fact, not shared at all. Perhaps it was a result of the low season, or maybe no one else had booked a shared AA cabin, but I have four bunk beds all to myself. I feel a little bad, considering that there are couples sharing similar 4-bed rooms, but I might as well enjoy the private room and bathroom while I can! There’s an estufa (heater), hot shower, and the bed is very comfortable as well! I was surprised at how well I slept last night!

We were supposed to be woken up via loudspeaker at 6:30, but the announcement barely woke me up, and I snoozed for too long and missed seeking the narrow channel that were passing through. I made it for breakfast though! I was so excited to have eggs! I’ve only had eggs twice while in South America, whereas in the states, I have an egg almost every day. Breakfast was followed by a short presentation about the fauna of Patagonia, which I decided to view in Spanish instead of English. I understood most of the lecture, and was aided by the bullet points, which were in both English and Spanish.

There was an afternoon movie, but unfortunately I slept through it. I am amazed at how much my body wants to recover from the hiking. I haven’t been very sore at all, but just want to sleep all the time. Perhaps it’s the cold, windy weather and being on the boat. I did make it for the night movie, Machuca, which I’d viewed already while at ECELA. It’s a really great Chilean movie about the Pinochet era, given from a child’s point of view, which won several awards at Cannes, and probably would have won more awards internationally had it not been made in the same year as the Academy Award winner that year (I can’t remember what it was). I enjoyed the movie very much the first time, but even more this time, since there were English subtitles and I had the opportunity to understand everything, not just piece it all together. I was exhausted after the movie (and a couple glasses of wine), so I showered and went straight to bed.