From Chile to Panama

Tags: Beagle Channel, Cape Horn, Chagres River, Chile, Panama, food

Date: December 27, 2022

After spending one whole day at (relatively calm) sea in the Drake Passage, we passed Cape Horn before entering the Beagle Channel:

The Beagle Channel is 240 km long and separates Southern Chile from Southern Argentina. It was a cloudy day but we caught a mountain top in a ray of sunshine:

During the journey through the Beagle Channel we went past a number of large glaciers, forming the so-called Glacier Alley. It has five large glaciers, all named after European countries: Italia, Francia, Alemania, España and Holanda. In addition, there is a sixth glacier called Romanche, which is the Spanish word for one of the four different languages spoken in Switzerland, i.e. Romanch.

This is the Romanche Glacier seen as we're approaching from the East:

Another photo of the Romanche Glacier taken right in front of it with its waterfall of melting water:

The Alemania Glacier:

After disembarking Fram in Punta Arenas we traveled back to Panama and Amanda. After provisioning, we made the short trip from Shelter Bay Marina out to Rio Chagres to celebrate Christmas in the calm surroundings of the jungle.

We picked a branch for a Christmas tree with ornaments made out of a paper napkin, two "nisser" a friend made for us several years ago (for another appearance of the "nisser" go to the Crossing the Atlantic, part 1 post) and some ribbon. We even had a present to place under the tree:

Picture of our Christmas Eve dinner starter, "Faux gras" served with pickled grapes and a green salad:

The starter was followed by duck confit with roast potatoes and mushrooms and of course ris a l'amande with cherry sauce for dessert.

The Christmas tree lights are on:

While on Rio Chagres we went on several dinghy rides, taking the obligatory photo of Amanda at anchor:

We found a small tributary that we hadn't seen before so that was a new adventure for us. Here is a view along the little river:

Rio Chagres with Amanda in the background:

Bjarne driving the dinghy: