DINNER IS SERVED
Here is a typical evening’s menu from MV Atmosphere: Appetizers
Oysters with vodka, King crab toast, Camembert cheese toast with papaya jam
Menu ‘Duck headband’:
Foie gras, magret and duck in balsamic reduction and candied orange
Cinnamon sea bass fi let, with citric sauce, green pea puree and olive-sautéed sprouts
Dessert
Flamed strawberries with black pepper with a chocolate and native hazelnut mousse
Wines
Carmenere Orzada 2006, Pinot Noir Las Graisas 2008, Vina Leyda
or fresh fruit juice (or a soothing glass of wine in some cases). They exuded a sense of genuine care and hospitality, which seemed part natural Chilean and part genuine Nomads charm. Gian Paulo, Pablo and Ignacio were the three main guides for our eco-adventures, either piloting the RIB, leading hikes or kayak trips, or just providing a constant, fascinating and ultra-informed narrative of the fl ora, fauna, ecology, geology and environment as a whole. Ignacio, as it turned out, was a highly-qualifi ed mountaineer, if anyone had fancied anything more challenging, while Gian Paulo is also one of the brains behind a major Chilean conservation programme, the Centre for Marine Mammals Research. As each day unfolded, our intrepid group alternately piled into the RIB;
20 WORLD OF CRUISING I Summer 2010
embarked one of the helicopters; were sent paddling in the kayaks; or pulled on our hiking boots for another close-up with the majestic expanse of Patagonia. Ah Patagonia – our constant backdrop
of panoramic splendours, with the ever-present Andes either retreating into the distance in serried ranks of snow- capped majesty, swooping down to the coast to form towering fjords or disappear- ing in the low cloud and rain that swept in periodically (like Alaska, this part of Chile gets plenty of precipitation, even in the Austral summer, so you need to be prepared for a complete mix of weathers).
or a proper picture of the seemingly endless miles of coastline hereabouts you need to start with the idea of rugged, add in a dash of heavily-forested, splash it liberally with precipitous and colour it all with an uninhabited desola- tion that speaks directly to the soul of an edge-of-the-world locale utterly oblivious to visitors. This is a primal landscape not long forged from the womb of Mother Earth, still dotted by the volcanoes which are the literal embodiment of its creation. In the distance, we saw the hulking Chaiten still smoking and smouldering from a 2008 eruption; the bulk of Corcovado played
F
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