When we looked out this morning, we were slap bang in front of the largest glacier in the Southern Hemisphere outside of the Antarctic: The Pio XI Glacier. 41 miles long and 2000m high. An extraordinary blue wall of ice-water. Like a great tidal wave frozen in time, a scene out of The Day After Tomorrow, when the world freezes in a second…. Blue, blue ice walls with white crystalline shard toppings, deeply crevassed and streaks of grey where the glacier has picked up rocks and dirt as it travels back and forth. Tidewater glaciers are much less prone to climate change than other glaciers but they are quite active. This one has gone back and forth about 6 miles in the last 50 years.

We scrambled into our clothes and got up on deck and found a viewing spot at the top of the ship right above the bow. It was quieter outside than yesterday, possibly people were still in bed, possibly those with balcony cabins knew that the Captain would be angling the ship so that everyone had a nice long full-frontal view. We made the most of it anyway. I don't know how many photos I took but every time the light changed, the glacier changed colour. Got some cracking ones and a nice piece of video. I will load them up, probably when we reach Valparaiso. A crew boat went out to take photographs of the ship and also pick up a piece of glacier ice for everyone to see. This glacier apparently calves more than most but although there were quite a few small pieces of ice floating in the sea we did not see any fall into the water. We did hear it give an almighty crack at one point though.

We spent about 2 hours in front of the glacier as the ship slowly spun on its axis. Then it was time to head back down the fjord towards the Pacific. It was going to take about 6 hours so we just sat back and enjoyed the stunning views on every side. There was very little wind today and so felt so much warmer. This fjord was narrower than the one yesterday and with higher, steeper walls. Not a trace of humanity anywhere we looked except for a lone catamaran that came sailing up the fjord towards the glacier. At the risk of repeating myself Chile is a stunningly, stunningly scenic country.

We tore ourselves away from the outside at 2:30 for our art class. Oohh.. Frightening! Today we were drawing a woman, back view, looking slightly over her shoulder. And it had to be realistic, not naïve….. This chap is a miracle worker though. Somehow, with his tips, we managed to produce two reasonable portraits. I am staggered….. James, the artist, has exhibited very widely and the Queen has some of his paintings. Anyway, he had made a lovely watercolour of Aurora amongst the ice fields and he is putting Bob and me in as tiny figures on one of the icebergs which will make a lovely birthday present for Bob.

So, an evening of entertainment ahead as we cruise up the Pacific coast of Chile. The entertainment on board continues to be fantastic. Last night we went to a concert given by an operatic tenor and also a show from the Headliner resident troop. Both were absolutely tops. I am so impressed with the resident group. There isn't a weak one in the whole 13 of them. Tonight, we have two shows: a woman comedian/magician and also a singer who is a tribute act to Neil Diamond. I think I might have seen him before and if so, he was really good. It must be a mammoth job for the Entertainments Director to have to supply two different top class acts every night plus the different musical artists for the different lounges around the ship. Some of them are along for the entire voyage but the guest artists e.g. both of those on this evening, fly in and out, generally staying for about a week and giving two different performances.