After the Navimag Ferry dropped us in Puerto Montt, we spent a few days making our way up the coast to Algarrobo, Chile. Algarrobo is home to San Alfonso del Mar which boasts the largest swimming pool (outdoor) in the world.
To save a bit on driving time and gas consumption and to take advantage of a unique opportunity to check out the beauty of the Chilean fjords, we decided to take the Navimag Ferry from Puerto Natales more than 2,000 kilometers north to the town of Puerto Montt. The ferry is basically a commercial operation transporting commercial goods such as produce and livestock from the isolated southern coast of Chile to Puerto Montt, where the main highway begins and runs all the way north to Santiago and beyond.
One of the highlights of Chilean Patagonia is definitely the mountains and peaks in Torres del Paine National Park. We planned to catch the Navimag ferry from Puerto Natales, Chile in a few days and it was a convenient location because the national park was only an hour dive outside of Natales. Torres del Paine is notorious for bad weather and since we were there during the end of winter, we did not know quite what to expect.
Headache, insomnia, breathlessness, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, rapid heartbeat, loss of appetite and in more serious cases, lack of coordination, confusion, difficulty breathing and coughing up frothy, bloody phlegm. These are all the signs and symptoms of altitude sickness.
Nothing could be stranger than seeing cars, houses, playgrounds and an entire town buried under several feet of volcanic mud after the erruption of Volcano Chaiten in Chile.
