Cabulco and The Chile Cruise Was Over
The ship spent the night anchored in Castro and left early the next morning...View image...through the Quehui and Calcahue Channels before dropping anchor at Dalcahue, a little town on Chiloe with interesting crafts.
From there, the Skorpios sailed on to Cabulco, the oldest town in the region on the Island of Huelmo. Off the ship to explore once again but again there wasn't much to see with the exception of a few llamas here. I have this "thing" for llamas and camels both with unique personalities and can spend days watching them.
The journey had passed quickly cruising through the Fjords of Chile with many interesting sights along the way in addition to the Laguna San Rafael. There were dolphins swimming alongside the ship...
...a wonderful barbeque on deck...
...the Skorpios would provision fresh food at some of the stops along the way, and it was fascinating when another boat would chug up and the load was hoisted onto the deck...
...and then, one night we all played Bingo...in Spanish, naturally. We plopped ourselves down by Corrine, followed her lead and before long caught on to numero ocho (8), etc. and were bingo'ing like champs. Neither ex-Marine and I got anywhere near a Bingo until the last game with the Grand Prize. You had to fill the entire card and for once, when we saw what the Prize was, both said.."don't want to win this one." It was a gorgeous, large, hand-made model ship. How would we get that home if one of us won. No way. The game got tenser and tenser with Steve covering his numbers. With one number left, they called it...Numero ???...and ex-Marine shouted BINGO! Oh...good...grief...he won the Grand Prize. Luckily, the masts detached, the rowboat, oars and sails came apart in individual pieces, the Skorpios found a box and packed it for us and this ship is still sitting in our house. Of all times to get lucky.. (We should really e-Bay it because no one in the family lusts over it. E-mail if you are interested...)
Next, after dinner, the ship's Doctor passed out the same strong sleeping pills for the same possible rough passage back tonight. This time, no one took more than one.
Only one tradition was left on the Skorpios. The farewell dinner. The dining room all spiffied up, and us in our best (which wasn't too fantastic) we prepared for the final night and more toasts...a wonderful buffet...Adios to all our new South American friends...View image...mucho gracias to Isobel...View image... for her translating skills and Spanish lessons.
It was a great cruise even if we were linguistically challenged. This gave us a chance to become almost totally immersed into a Spanish-speaking culture. Good for us. The food was delicious, wine excellent, people friendly, Laguna San Rafael a surreal experience and we added fun to the voyage. No one will ever forget the two of us rushing up on deck in life jackets when the Captain was just testing the equipment. This cruise, with minor changes, still operates and I would certainly give it some thought... If you do, Happy cruising and Hasta Luego...
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