Puerto Montt today

We had fond memories of Puerto Montt.  We were last here twelve years ago with my parents and remembered walking through the town and a craft market.  I looked forward to revisiting the small town and to seeing if it was as I recalled.

I couldn’t wait to open the curtains this morning and take a look – are we there yet?

I quickly called my hero to come and see the volcano on the horizon.  Wow!

As we ate breakfast, the skies changed and the shafts of light over the mountains were simply gorgeous.  The volcano disappeared into the clouds and didn’t put in another appearance all day.

It was another tender ride into the port and once again, I spotted something of interest on the journey.  Heaven help us if we ever need to make use of the tools and other emergency equipment on board – but it’s good to know that it’s there, I suppose.

The usual security checks awaited us accompanied by broad smiles and this attractive mural on the warehouse wall.

We were heading out of town first, along the last bit of the Pan American Highway in Chile towards Puerto Varas and then along the lakeside and into the National Park to see some waterfalls.

The small towns here are mostly built of wooden shingle homes and were settled by mostly German immigrants.

There’s an outdoorsy feel to the area and plenty of activities on offer, like fly fishing, sailing and horseback riding.

(Sorry about the reflection!)

Lake Llanquihue is huge – the second largest lake in Chile – and is surrounded by volcanoes such as the one we’d seen first thing this morning.

 

A little further along, we were to see evidence of that too, because Calbuco, the volcano just to the east of here had erupted last April, showering the whole of the area with ash, much of which had simply been swept to the side of the road.

Once into the National Park, the rocks were clearly of volcanic origin too with rounded shapes and soft curves.  Interesting!

We walked down to the falls at Petrohue along a dusty volcanic ash pathway.

Here, the river squeezed through several narrow channels.

Having squeezed through the narrow channels, the bright blue-green oxygenated water looked stunning against the black rock .

 

We walked around the area, noticing that water was squeezing through every gap.

This was my favourite, where a large expanse of water “folded” itself into a small channel.  As you know, I find water like this mesmerising.

At this point, someone muttered that they felt cheated; that this wasn’t a waterfall at all but just a few rapids.  Oh. Dear. Me.

What was interesting is that this volcanic rock was totally different in character from the earlier “bubbly” area we’d walked through.  This was darker in colour and almost like fused slate.

I thought it a really beautiful area in which to spend an hour, especially since that volcano, Osorno, was brooding there in the distance.  It’s the same volcano as we’d seen this morning and the top third is covered in snow, as we’d seen for ourselves but others simply had to take Andrea’s word for it.

As we walked back to the coach, I spotted a sign.  My Spanish is very limited indeed, but I can sniff out a good thing when I see it and this little heap of home made manjar needed to be sampled, for sure.  $2000 - £2 – and the deal was done.

We drove back along the same lakeside road as we’d come, past potato fields enriched by the volcanic ash.

We passed the German school as we entered the town of Puerto Varas

and parked up for an hour underneath a tangle of overhead cables.

We set out to explore this little town, enjoying the faintly frontier-town vibe.

We noticed further evidence of the German heritage here and there

and bought a bottle of shampoo in the drugstore!

The little grocery store had a wonderful selection of empanadas, all looking delicious and very tempting indeed.  But we had a reservation for fine dining tonight and must resist!

We wandered down to the lakeside where a few hardy souls were swimming in the glacial water.

Two small boys were giggling and throwing a fish around – was it a real fish or a rubber toy?  Who knows – but it was fun and they were in good spirits!

Not known for my love of birds (!), I was nevertheless interested in this rather pretty one, wading in a rock pool there.  I have no idea what it is but always enjoy the different sights and sounds of another continent.

The craft goods on sale were very much of this place and though they looked fine on a hanger here, would not really fit in anywhere else.

An uneventful ride back into Puerto Montt left us with a couple of hours to take a look at the market there and to take a walk down memory lane.

Yes, it was just as we remembered it but twelve years on does not entice us to make any more purchases than we did on that occasion.  Actually, by this time it was starting to rain (or, as Andrea said, beginning to apply a little moisture to the complexion).  The craft market crowd was mooching along very slowly and someone was getting a little fed up with it all.  We upped our pace and hot footed it to the fish market, a bit further along.

This was all undercover, so the moisture was merely underfoot.  Just like the fish markets I remember from my childhood in Hull, such fresh fish wasn’t at all smelly and it was fascinating to see the large salmon there on sale at bargain prices.

$3000 a pound – that’s £3.  My goodness, we could have a feast.

There was plenty of choice when it came to smoked fish and shellfish too.

But peering outside, the rain was coming down harder and even though we were equipped for wet weather, we were ready for home.  As we stepped onto the tender, the seaman pulled up the gangway and we were off, back across the harbour to our sleek, white ship.

This morning, we are sailing down another fjord, towards Puerto Chacabuco where we will arrive around lunchtime.  In a few minutes, we’ll enjoy a commentary from Terry Breen, our on board expert, who will point out anything of interest as we make our way into Patagonia.

I’ll tell you all about it later!

Superbowl Sunday

A scheduled day at sea today.  We are still sailing down the west coast of Chile, heading towards the lakes and fjords of the southern tip and aiming to be in Puerto Montt tomorrow morning.  There is still a heavy swell, there’s a head wind and the current is against us too.  But the Captain has put his foot down and we are sailing full steam ahead to be there as near on time as possible.  But in his announcement today, the Captain did warn us that we might be a little late in arriving.  Like fifteen or twenty minutes…

We are having a happy time on board though.  We’re relaxed, we are in excellent company and being very well looked after.  We have all the entertainment we could wish for and spent the day listening to interesting speakers, sitting gossiping over coffee, enjoying a good Italian lunch and trivia this afternoon.  We didn’t do so well, but hey, what did it matter?

This evening, whilst balloons were being inflated in preparation for the Superbowl party, we headed for the bar and enjoyed an apertif whilst we decided what we might do for dinner when the football fans were watching the match.  Though we thought the restaurants would be so empty we’d take our pick, in fact there were still quite a few folks around.

Occasionally, though, it helps to ask the right question at the right time, of the right person…and sure enough, we got the right answer.

Yes, there was a table for us in Signatures, the French restaurant.  Perfect.

Cheers!

First problem, what to choose?  I started with the asparagus salad, perfumed with truffle.

It was delicious and thankfully, not a huge portion.

Next, I chose the veal medaillons.

Again, not too huge a plateful, but perfectly cooked and beautifully served.

We decided the house (included) wines would do very nicely thank you.  No need to splash out on the $815 a bottle alternative!

 

By the time the petits fours arrived with the dessert menu, we were beginning to falter.  Still, that little strawberry macaron can’t do any harm, can it?

My hero decided to dive right in with creme brulee whilst I decided I couldn’t manage a full dessert at all and chose to have a simple scoop of the white chocolate and mascarpone ice cream.

I did wonder if I ought to have ordered the creme brulee too, though

We sat and chatted to some friends as we left, feeling utterly spoiled and totally stuffed.  All was quiet on the Superbowl front; in fact, all was quiet on the ship, full stop.  Who knows if the “right” team are winning?  Will we hear evidence of the outcome when the game ends later on?  We have no idea!  But as we have a fairly early start tomorrow morning, we decided to call it a day and turn in for the night.

Looks like some bears have been having fun whilst we were out, doesn’t it?

Valparaiso

Well, our suspicions that Coquimbo, our next scheduled port of call might be in question were confirmed when the Captain announced that not only it but all other ocean-facing ports along this coast were closed to all sea traffic on account of the swell.  As a result, we’d sail right on by and though we were disappointed to miss our tour of the Elqui valley and the pisco distillery, there wasn’t anything we could do.  The Captain, bless him, had tried all possibilities including early arrival into Valaparaiso, but sea conditions were just making his life pretty challenging all round.  As a result, we were relieved to open the curtains this morning and see this view!

 

Even so, it wasn’t a given that we’d be able to dock here and even though we made it, it appears that other services such as refuelling and loading provisions were in question, too.

None of that was worrying us this morning, though.  We were happy to be here and spent a few minutes remembering our last visit, with my parents twelve years ago.  These steep hillsides with the funiculars were what I remembered best of all and those hadn’t changed one bit.

Our table with a view was waiting for us when we went for breakfast and we watched as the ship in front of us was off loaded of a cargo of steel rods.  It was moving even more than we were and seemed very insecure.

The seamen from Mariner were putting more ropes in place than I’ve ever seen and when we’d finished our breakfast and were ready to go, they were still adding more.

We headed down to the theatre and collected our tickets for today’s tour.  The destinations service has been particularly efficient so far this cruise and there has been an air of calm and cooperation at every departure.  We like that!

We were soon on our coach and heading off with Veronika, who spoke excellent English and gave us a great background to Chile and its inhabitants.

First stop, Vina del Mar, the smart, upscale beachside neighbourhood to the north of Valparaiso. 

Now this stop was an added bonus really, for we hadn’t paid much attention to our programme for the day.  The small Fonck Museum had begun as a private collection but the main focus of our visit was to learn a little more about Easter Island.  It was a bit of a mental leap – we’ve never been there, had not expected this at all so hadn’t given it any thought whatsoever, but the local guide was interesting and it was good to find out some more about this mysterious island dependency of Chile.

There were other exhibits which interested me such as the silver jewellery and so on, but one small item in a case piqued my interest in particular and I need to find out more.

Polynesian maps.

I am fascinated by non-verbal representations of information, such as the quipu in Peru and, here, this map.  Horizontal pieces are the currents, vertical pieces represent the tides, the large shells the islands and the small shells the stars.  By such simple means did Polynesian sailors chart their knowledge of the area in which they lived and travelled.  How clever is that?

Anyway, determining to learn more about them, I left that idea percolating through the grey matter and whilst my hero dashed down the street to the ATM, I contented myself with a few cute bowls and a mummy.

Another mummy from the Atacama desert. 

On our way back towards Vaparaiso and crossing this bridge in Vina del Mar, I was struck how much it reminded me of San Sebastian, except the Chileans had dammed up the river at the seaward end to stop the waves crashing up into town.

We were heading up into the hills to the Casablanca valley, one of several valleys where the main wine growing areas are situated.  We drove mostly along modern motorways, but stopped at the tollbooth and felt sad about the litter which is to be seen all over the place here.

Our destination was Vina Idomita, set high on a hillside above vineyards.

Veronika introduced us to another guide whose commentary needed every bit of concentration to follow.  She gave us a good introduction to the business before taking us inside to see the nitty gritty.

Except there wasn’t really anything to see. 

Never mind, there were some interesting silhouettes through the window!

A little further on, we were taken into the cellar where the better quality wines are aged.  I was finding it especially difficult to hear the commentary, so contented myself with taking photos.

This was an interesting shelf.  I did wonder if they’d miss a bottle, but then thought the dust would be a giveaway.

From there, we went outside for the fun bit.  First, a Sauvignon Blanc

Then a pinot noir

finally a Cabernet Sauvignon/Carmenere blend.

Yummy.  All three.  But now, we were feeling peckish!

Lunch was mentioned, so we lost no time in getting back on the road through the vineyards to our next stop.

Estancia El Cuadro was a fine estate set in beautiful scenery and we learned that it’s a favourite place for weddings and similar events.

We learned that we were going to have an aperitif and watch a demonstration by some Chilean cowboys – or Huasos – before lunch, though.

Our fourth glass of wine awaited us…

and a rather enormous empanada, the size of a Cornish Pasty.  Very tasty, but very hot too.

Meanwhile, the huaso got dressed, explaining every piece of his costume.  Look at those spurs!

Once suitably attired, he climbed on board his patient horse and gave a demonstration of his riding skills.

At one point, a couple of his colleagues joined him and they showed us how two huasos could corral a cow in a rodeo situation.  The cow was compliant and had clearly done all of this a few times before!

All ended happily, we watched a couple of dances before moving along to the Estancia proper and enjoying lunch at last.  It must have been 3pm by then.

On the wall of the Estancia was this remarkable piece of creative macrame.  I just had to post it for my crafty chums to admire, too.

With a last look at those beautiful vineyards, it was time to head back to the port.  There might have been the quiet sound of a siesta on the way back…

Bernardo, our driver, took us on a small tour of the centre of Valparaiso on the way back.  It being Saturday afternoon, it was buzzing.

But once we got there, it was ever so good to be home.

We could watch the party from the comfort of our own verandah as we got ready to meet friends for dinner tonight.  What a great day we had!

A bit of a hokey cokey

The sign on our bed when we got in last evening from our long drive home was a bit of a kick in the teeth.  I mean, I’m sure Chile took a perfectly well reasoned decision to combine the difference in time due to their time zone with daylight saving (or something), but for those of us arriving from Peru and needing to put our clocks forward two hours, it was cruel.  Rosemarie had already altered the clock in our room, so although I thought I switched the light off at 10.45pm, the clock advised 10 to 1 in the morning.

Our reward came at breakfast though.

Sitting at our preferred table out on deck, the couple at the next table spotted a spout of water some way off and as they tipped us the wink, several more spouts appeared around us.  Whales!  Once we’d tuned into what to look for and where, they were coming thick and fast.  Though we didn’t see any fins or means of identifying them, it was fun to think that we were surrounded by such beautiful creatures.

We came back to our room and stepping out onto the verandah to see if there were any water spouts nearby, I was greeted by a pod of dolphins, leaping alongside us.  What a great way to begin the day!

We spent an hour or so listening to a Smithsonian lecturer and film critic which was just about interesting enough to keep me awake, but it was a struggle!

What we were really looking forward to was our trip ashore this afternoon to a UNESCO site at Humberstone, a former nitrate refinery town (now deserted) and to see the Pintados Geoglyphs.  We stood and watched as the tender vessels were prepared, commenting as we did that our fears were unfounded.  The heavy swell has continued this morning and the ship is rolling quite hard from side to side.  That, coupled with our late departure from Matarani last night made us wonder if we might lose this port of call.  But all systems were go it seemed!

The sun was shining, the air was warm and we were in an optimistic frame of mind.

We went to exchange our tickets for boarding cards and waited with our group on the deck to board the tender.  Boarding was slow because of the ship’s movement and so patience was needed.

We heard a loud scraping.  Oooer.  The seamen were finding it tricky to keep the tender close to the platform at the bottom of the steps and now and again, the platform would be under water – or worse, the side of the tender would catch under the platform and get stuck.  Boarding was called to a halt whilst some means of stabilising the transfer could be worked out.

In the meantime we chatted to those around us and I had an interesting conversation with our young, Venezuelan Second Officer about bringing the ship into dock yesterday afternoon.  One good thing about travelling like this: We know we are in safe and very capable hands and no risks will be taken.

Eventually, boarding recommenced and one by one, we were helped by safety officers down the steps and onto the tender.  It wasn’t easy.  Sometimes, there’d be a wait of five minutes or so whilst everything was lined up and back in place and as I stepped from platform to tender, I had strong supporting hands on both sides and someone waiting to help me once on board too.  We watched as another twenty or so boarded and it was declared we were ready to go.

A lovely warm breeze was blowing and we were soon over and approaching the harbour.

Once there, some careful manouevring was needed.

But we were there.  We were off on our adventure.

Hah!  Once we’d run the gamut of the welcome party that is!  I especially liked the wording on the young naval officer’s cap “Armada de Chile”.

We found our coach #3 and were about to step on board when there was a call.

The Captain had made a decision to withdraw the port.

Now, these things happen.  We’ve sailed right past ports of call before and missed out on several places as a result of inclement weather, security risks or other factors beyond our control.  It’s a risk we take and though disappointing, there’s nothing we can do.  Sadly, instead of boarding the bus, it was time to return to the tender.

We caught a glimpse of the replica Esmeralda though, if not much else but the smiles of the sweet, but disappointed, tour guides who were waiting to take us off on our adventure.

Returning to the tender, there was plenty of chatter, preparing the stories to tell back home.  I suspect the Captain feared the situation becoming worse, given that many of our tours were likely to return at dusk or later.  Managing to transfer elderly and some infirm guests in difficult circumstances was most probably just too much of a risk to take.

So, back we went to the ship.

Escorted at all times by the Chilean ?Coastguard?

Thankfully, those strong supporting hands were there to help us all back onto the jetty and up the steps to the ship again.  We’ve had longer tours ashore, that’s for sure.  We’ve had smoother rides.  But this one will remain in the memory, I’m certain. 

Shame about Humberstone and the geoglyphs though, eh?  We might have to come back