Navimag Cruise to San Rafael Lagoon

We begin our adventure in the city of Castro where we will go on board on the Mare Australis cruise equipped with comfortable and welcoming facilities, to navigate the patagonian fjords, through which we will know part of the Northern Patagonian Ice Fields where we will know the magical San Rafael Glacier located in the lagoon of the same name, declared in 1979 Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO. After five days of pure and virgin nature, will our adventure end in the city of Castro.

Day 1:

Our adventure begins in Castro, the most ancient city of the Chiloe Island. It was founded in 1567 with the aim to use it as base for the evangelizing process of the aborigines of the zone. It is characterized by its coloring pile-dwelling, its cultural identity related to the mythology and the ancient peoples with the traditions of great navigators kept until today. The Cathedral has a gothic and classic design with a construction based on local tradition, with the use of noble wood, such as the cypress, coihue, and the larch. It was named Heritage of the Humanity by the UNESCO in 2000.

A welcome drink invites you to leave behind Castro on board of the M/N Mare Australis and to enjoy the hospitality of the crew. We sail along Castro's estuary, the Channel Lemuy, Chonchi, and the channel Yal to come to Punta Centinela, and to prepare the crossing of the Gulf of the Corcovado.

Day 2:

The sunrise arrives in Melinka's small port, the capital of the archipelago of the Guaitecas, to go into the Channel Perez Norte, setting off toward Jechica, with the view in the Velberde, García, and Garrao islands. We cross the Puntilla Chonos to arrive to our destination through the tideland Chulle.

Jechica is a Natural Sanctuary in the heart of the Chilean Patagonia, where the exuberant nature is in its primitive condition. The Turberas de Sphagnum contributes as the unique ecosystem for the carbon storage.

The disembarkation is programmed after the breakfast, realizing a trekking through the Centenary Forests of Cypress of the Guaitecas (Pilgerodendron uviferum), Coihue de Chiloe (Nothofagus nitida), Notros (Embotrium coccinium), and Mañios (Podocarpus nubigena), among other species. At the same time, we discover some of the 50 species of terrestrial and marine birds of the archipelago, such as the Carpintero Magallánico (Campephilus magellanicus), Fío – Fío (Elaenia albicep chilensis), thrush (Turdus falklandii), Cometocino Patagónico (Phrygilus patagonicus), Carancho (Caracara plancus), Albatroz of Black Eyebrow (Thalassarche melanophris), Cormorant of Red Leg (phalacrocórax gaimardi), and finalizing with a great Patagonian lunch with fresh seafood of the zone and the inevitable “corderos al palo” (lamb cooked in a stick on the fire),with an impressive view of the landscape of this navigator’ shelter where the waters of the Pacific Ocean meet the exuberant vegetation.

We will set sail in the middle of the evening navigating the Channel Baeza and Perez Sur with course to the Tuap Island and Puerto Aguirre arriving at about the midnight.

Day 3:

The sunrise is in front of the Mogote islands, crossing the estuary Elefantes to face the Paso Quesahuen and De Vidt to arrive at the Laguna San Rafael after the breakfast. We will be witnesses of an impressive spectacle. San Rafael is unhooked of the mountains and is part of the Campo de Hielo Norte, the most equatorial marine snowdrift of the world and declared World Reservation of the Biosphere in 1979 by the UNESCO.

The disembarkation -according the climatic conditions- will be realized on board of powerful MKV Zodiac Boats allowing us to come closely together from the thousand-year-old ice under the more strict safety procedures, admiring the different tonalities -from the deep blue up to the absolute transparency- and maybe we will be witnesses of some the falls of these colossal blocks of ice where the deafening noise breaks the quite while it enters to the water with great force.

The hot chocolate and the Whiskey wait for us on board to attack the cold and to share experiences. We raise anchors in the middle of the evening to prepare our navigation course to our next stop.

Day 4 and 5:

The sunrise is in Bahía de Tic Toc, in the heart of the National Park Corcovado, a privileged ecosystem that shelters Fiords, Bays, Rivers, and Volcanoes. We make a pause in this Natural Amphitheatre to enjoy the landscape, to take photographs and if the conditions allow to see whales, since the great quantity of existing nutrients make of this zone of fiords and channels one of the more important areas of feeding and breeding for the blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in the whole South Hemisphere, at least during the summers and autumn.

The well-deserved pause are followed by few hours of navigation to Chaitén, where we will land to be witnesses of the devastating effects of the eruption of the Volcano Chaitén in May, 2008 and February, 2009, after centuries of inactivity. We will cross forests consumed by Piroclasto's Flows that going down for the valleys, to go by foot for a few paths through a former larch wood, one of the few ones that has escaped of the predator effect of the human being. There, we will be able to contemplate the beauty of these giant protagonists of the pass of the time.

We come back to the ship and prepare ourselves to enjoying of the last night crossing the Gulf Corcovado to go through the Channels Quehui and Lemuy to Castro.

We invite you to be a protagonist, to live the experience, to tell your own history in this route through the Patagonian channels.