4. Navimag Ferry between Puerto Natales and Puerto Montt, Chile



Navimag Ferry route


In Punta Arenas, Chile we met an Australian couple - Mark and Kerry - who with great enthusiasm told us about this ferry you can take - 4 days from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. Navimag runs the ferry. We had read about it before but thought it was too expensive. First class is about $2100. We ended up buying C class (the lowest) tickets which is basically an upper and lower bunk in a hallway. But then we were 'upgraded' to CC which is  a cabin (no window) for 4. A very SMALL cabin. $366 each including all meals. Pretty cheap really. The ferry wasn´t pretty but it worked.

There are no roads in this part of Chile, so the ferry is the only way to move freight without driving through Argentina.

Fortunately we were lucky and ended up having the cabin all to ourselves, so we travelled in style. If the other 2 bunks had been occupied it would have been way too crowded and stuffy. C class would have been better.

Booking this trip turned out to be a great decision. It was a fantastic voyage.  Fjords, glaciers, snow capped peaks were all around us as we navigated through sometimes impossibly narrow channels. The weather for the first 2 days was excellent, lucky for us, as it can be very rainy and foggy on the coast as we found out on the last day. The ferry 'Evangelistas'  is a working boat first - filled with trucks, trailers and other heavy duty equipment. The 150 passengers come second. Directly below our deck were several trailers jammed full of cattle. A bit smelly and they bawled the hole trip. We actually docked with 2 more passengers than we started with -  2 calves were born en route.

Most of the route was through protected waters but one stretch of about 12 hours took us out into the Pacific. It was blowing like stink and the ship was rolling around. Lots of green faces and meal attendance dropped significantly.

The food was pretty basic but plentiful, better than we had expected. The crew were excellent - many informative sessions on the flora and fauna and sights along the route. We met many people from all over the world.   The last evening they had a bingo and wind-up party - Marilyn ended up winning the grand prize - a vest, bottle of wine and a hip flask! We really had a blast.

Now in Puerto Montt (a rather rough around the edges port city) where we will spend 2 nights before travelling to Bariloche in Argentina's lake district.