Touristy stuff in Puerto Montt

Woke to the alarm at 6:15, had breakfast in the Horizon Court and were in the Princess Theater at about 7:30 for the 7:45 meeting time for our tour. We sat there for a long time before being released to the embarkation port only to stand at the embarkation port forever. It was 8:45 when we got to town. I've never seen more busses in one place in my life! We were booked for a tour titled, "Petrohue River & Lake Esmeralda".  To say it was touristy is an understatement though some aspects were nice.

The catamaran tour on the lake, which is locally known as "Lago Todos los Santos", was a bust; lots of people jammed in for a 40 minute trip to nowhere and back. I'm guessing that if it was a sunny day the scenery might have been magnificent and the cruise worthwhile but in our case it was a waste of time.

Petrohue Falls were interesting but absolutely teeming with people. They are more rapids than fall, cut through volcanic rock; quite picturesque. Lunch of salmon at “Las Onces Bellavista”, a very nice place with excellent service, was absolutely great ; a terrific stop and the highlight of the trip. We also enjoyed the shopping stop at Puerto Varas though we only had 40 minutes there. I bought 2 CDs from a street musician for US$15 and a fantastic little clay pot for US$3 from an artisan's guild, the Fundación Atesanías de Chile. Our tour guide, Carolina, was great and, in fact, virtually all the local people we met were friendly.

There was quite a line for the tender when we returned but it quickly got a lot longer behind us. Back on the ship I dressed for dinner and sat on the balcony while Lin got ready.

There was a continuous parade of small boats laden with locals, many of them kids, circumnavigated the ship. Most of the folks were waving and many shouting "Hello"; it was quite a picnic!

We had dinner with the gang in the Desert Rose Steak House. The filet was wonderful but Gus said his t-bone was tough. We got out of there about 8:30 and headed for the Wheelhouse. The show band was just quitting and were replaced by Deep Blue who were quite good in that venue. Lin and I sat with Nellie and Andy Lee for the rest of the evening. Frank & Pat were with us for quite a while and we sat further back from the band so we could talk.

We quit about 11:30 and I wrote and read for a while.

As with Punta Arenas, we saw little of Puerto Montt other than from the bus as we passed through on a tour. Here also what we saw was less than picturesque but, again, that may be unfair. I have noted over the years that towns that have very cold weather are often somewhat shabby. I suspect it might because people spend less time outside than in but that's only a guess. Having said that, nearby Puerto Varas, on the shores of the large Lake Llanquihue, was quite nice but we were unable to spend much time there.