*POLAR FILES*: Chillean Fjords and Torres del Paine

We have covered many sea miles since the last entry. We have visited some very interesting cities along the Chillean coast; Valparaiso, Valdivia and Puerto Montt, had some interesting tours and seen some very nice things. I must say that taking the old funicular railways (that are on the UNESCO world heritage listing and walk around in the alleyways and small streets

uptown Valparaiso was one of my highlights. There it seems as if street art is much appreciated and you really find some cool graphics on the walls.

But the real highlight of this whole trip is the southern section, sailing through the fjord landscape from Puerto Montt and south. Some say it’s very similar to the Norwegian fjords, but a big difference is that here temperate rain forest is covering lots of the land. As we come south we find glaciers that project into the ocean, closer to the equator than anywhere else in the world and the climate get really damp. We have now had several days of rain and occasionally sleet in the air, so for those of you living in Norway; I have it pretty similar to you weather-vice as you have home. Luckily the large low pressure over southern South America is about to diminish – something we need as we are later heading for Cape Horn for our southernmost landing of the trip.

Torres del Paine is something for itself. The groups of granite peaks penetrating right up from a relatively flat landscape around at about 200 meters above sea level is truly some of the most impressive in the world. My personal experience is that these Patagonian spires (also those in the Argentinean, Los Glaciares National Park), together with peaks on south east Greenland and Baffin Island are the finest mountains in the world, like giants of Norway’s national mountain; Stetind! Today we were a little bit unfortunate and had overcast and low visibility. Here are a couple of pics from what we saw.