I’m used to launching my kayak wherever I like & until now have taken that for granted. But to paddle in Chile & Argentina we need permission from the 2 countries’ navies. Getting that rubber stamp is in some ways more tiring than the kayaking will be. We’ve been writing letters to the authorities for several months already, with the invaluable help of Kiko in Chile, and Monica Aramburu & Marcelo Rosado in Argentina. Today we spent over 2 hours at the Chilean Armada office in Punta Arenas, going over our planned route, finding out that we need to phone them every 3 days to report our position, & we need to contact certain lighthouses & Armada bases when we pass. When our kayaks arrive, members of the Armada will come and inspect all of our kit and make sure we have all the equipment in their mandatory list. If they are satisfied then we get the ‘ZARPE’, permission to navigate that we need. While it would be much easier for us to just get on the water, this is a very rough, windy and potentially dangerous place to kayak so I can understand why they want to make sure that the people who kayak here are experienced and well prepared. The officer we met stressed that the more information they know about where we are, the better they are able to help if we need them.

Also today we did some more shopping, looked around Punta Arenas, celebrated Kiko’s wife Veronica’s birthday, got permission from the customs office to temporarily import our kayaks, sampled ‘matte’ tea… and the day just went by without stops. It’s nearly midnight and Kiko is writing another letter for us…. I can’t wait to get kayaking!

7 Responses to “Meeting the Chilean Armada”