Day 2 · Friday

Day 2 27/12/2024

22:33 Still some light outside. I woke up at 05:36 and there was plenty of light outside already.

Woke up this morning ready for the Tour Full Mármol. After a homemade breakfast at our hotel, we walked down with the rest of our group to the marina. The tour took us across the lake to an old shipwreck and then to the tiny town of Puerto Sánchez. Not that we’ve seen any big towns around here, but this place was the smallest named town so far.

Then we were off for the real gem of the morning. The marble caves

22:33 still some light outside. I woke up at 05:36 this morning and there was plenty of light out.

Woke up this morning ready for our Tour Full Mármol. After a homemade breakfast at the hotel, we walked down with the rest of our group to the marina. There were 13 of us along with our guide Angela and Danny the captain. The tour had a mild beginning with a weird “shipwreck” and a stop in the tiny town of Puerto Sánchez.

The next few hours, however, were absolutely glorious. There are multiple islands made of marble here, so there are caves everywhere carved by the relentless advance and retreat of glaciers over time.

We passed by many caves, each beautiful to look at. The real treat was Danny driving a 15 passenger boat into some of these caves. Often, the boat barely fit through the narrow spaces, but he handled the 15-horsepower motor with the precision of a surgeon.

These caves were the impetus for this entire trip. They did not disappoint! It was amazing to see such beautiful scenery with practically no one else around. There seem to be fewer boats going to the Puerto Sánchez side of the caves. We saw very few boats for the first two thirds of the tour.

Only once we arrived at the more popular destinations on the Puerto Rio Tranquillo side did we see multiple other tour boats and kayaks. Truly fantastic to see such beautiful nature without a ton of other people around. Amazing!

Back in town we grabbed lunch and a beer, hunted for a cooler (which is an adventure here), and then headed west. We drove out X728 which leads to the glaciers. It’s another dirt road, more narrow than the main highway into town.

The fields on this road were lined in yellow. We really hit a great week for flowers. There were a crazy amount of waterfalls, a landslide that had changed the direction of the river, and fields and fields of these flowers. When we got out here, the air smelled of honey. We found a private park with hiking trails overlooking the glacier.

Gorgeous scenery with the glacier ahead and the glacial lake behind us. This was an amazing 360° view.

We made our way back to town and back to Ruedas & Ríos for burgers before turning in. Kayaking the Mármol early tomorrow morning!

Ciao!