Anyway, today’s port, and our last port before the end of
the trip is the town of Puerto Montt, Chile.
We were told that this town dates back to 1853 when a group of German
immigrants decided to colonize the densely forested region around the beautiful
Lake Lianquihue.
The city was almost totally ruined after a 1960 9.7
earthquake. It has now been rebuilt and
is a major fishing and fish industry port known for its salmon.
We were off the ship and onto a tender by 8:15am and met
our guide, Christian and driver Mario from the company enaurechile.com and set
off on a quick tour of Port Montt before going out in the countryside.
We travelled around one side of Lake Lianquihue, which is
huge, like one of our great lakes and came to a beautiful waterfall and rapids
on a river. We were, at that time
supposed to see two volcanoes that had been active as recently as a few years
ago, but it started raining and they were obscured by the clouds.
Then we drove back towards the town and stopped at a
wonderful restaurant which had been rebuilt after being crushed by lava during
the last eruption! We had a seafood
platter for two that included shrimp, smoked fish, smoked salmon, abalone, king
crab, steamed crabs, scallops, regular salmon with garlic and lemon and
mussels. It was so huge we could not
finish eating it all – wow was it good.
And yes, Ed ate everything and like 99% of it!!
Then we continue on our way back to port and stopped at
the town of Puerto Vargas which is a very beautiful small town with several blocks
of local craft markets. We shopped there
for ½ hour and then continued our tour.
Next we were back in Port Montt and they took us to a
huge fish and vegetable market and then to the major craft market in town. Of course we bought a few things.
Then it was time to say goodbye to our guide and driver –
they were two of the best we have had and we boarded the tender to go back to
the ship. So, while we missed the volcanoes,
we had a wonderful tour for the day.
By then it was time for a nap.
After our nap, we dressed for dinner. As we were dressing we saw the most magnificent
rainbow we have ever seen. One end
seemed to end right at our balcony. I
will post a picture and then a video later – it was amazing. Then we went to the show and the entertainer
was a piano player who had missed the ship at the last port. He put on a really good performance.
Dinner tonight was in the new specialty restaurant, the
Tuscan Grille with Carla the Casino Supervisor who we have been with
before. She is really good and we had
invited her to the restaurant with us and it ended up that the casino picked up
the tab for the table.
We finished dinner at 10:30pm and Carla went to work and we
played. Barb lost a tiny bit and Ed had
his biggest loss in a 2 hour session.
Now we are down for the trip and hopefully we can make it back up
tomorrow, our last day and a day at sea.
Night from the Pacific Ocean.
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| At the falls |
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| Lunch!! |
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| Buying a handmade hat |
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| At the fish market |
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| Ed, Mario our driver, Christian our guide and Barb |
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| The rainbow |
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| Dinner with Carla - the Casino Supervisor |
