We had a very early start in the dark at 5:30am (just as we had run out of wood for the stove) to meet for a 5 hour kayaking tour at 6:55am. For our “day off”, I had booked this kayaking tour to see the iconic marble caves, the marble chapel and the marble cathedral. The meeting point was just one block away from our cabana and our tour guide Matías was already waiting for us and let us know that we were the only ones on the tour 🤗

We drove for -20 minutes in his car to the bay where all the kayaks were stored and we geared up into the neoprene skirt, waterproof jacket and life jacket he provided at the car before walking down to the lake shore as the sun rose. We chose a double kayak (a Boréal designed Esperanto heavy duty kayak of 5.91m lengths, weighing 51 kilos) and after being shown how to hold the paddles, we hopped in the kayak and were the first kayaking group to head off. We followed Matías out of the sheltered bay. We had booked the tour after consulting the weather forecast on a day where there was hardly any wind forecast. The lake was flat like a mirror and we headed straight to the first formation known as the “chapel” due to the pointed top (I leave it to your imagination what it looks like 😉)

The marble formations and caves have been formed over more than 6000 years by the glacial water, waves and wind. The carbon dioxide in the mineral-rich waters of lake General Carrera over the years has dissolved the mostly calcium carbonate marble to form the amazing structures and the blue colours are reflections of the colours of the lake on the white walls.

After taking a few pictures, we continued to the next structure called “cathedral” because it is a larger formation than the “chapel”. The shorter tours only make it to these two structures and our tour provider is the only one that offers the longer 5 hour tour to the caves which are further away. We paddled to the caves where we were allowed to paddle into dead end caves, through tunnels and get really close to the marble rock. There were stalactites hanging from the roof and it was amazing to be able to get that close and manoeuvre an almost 6 m long kayak through the narrow passages. As a bonus, Matías pointed out a condor nesting in the sheer cliff face high above the lake, some rock formations in the shape of various animals (a Labrador, a seal and an elephant) and a large white rock that had recently broken off and fallen into the lake . We paddled back and now several small tour boats were at the cathedral and chapel as well as groups of other kayakers and we were glad to have been there early to gave it all to ourselves. We marvelled over the amazing marble structures one more time before heading back to shore. It was such a great experience – yet another highlight of our trip and Matías had so many stories and gave us some great recommendations for good places to eat in town. Both of our legs felt like jelly and we had to get our land legs back when we got out of the kayak 😂

We had a rest in our Cabana before heading into town for lunch at one of the places Matías had recommended. We then shopped for some groceries and fruit for our next camping stay. The day was so lovely warm and sunny and totally wind still that we went to the lake shore and sat by the water enjoying the views of the surrounding snow and glacier covered mountains. I had to take most of my clothes off and at least get my legs wet 😉😂 in the water and a dog came over to see what was going on.

We had a nice dinner at the other place Matías had recommended followed by the third night in a row of interrupted sleep due to having to keep the fire going.