Puerto Montt - our last port today – boo hoo!  I’d booked us on a private tour with a group of people from Cruise Critic.  As this was a tender port we’d agreed we’d all meet and get in line for a tender at exactly 8am so that  hopefully we’d all be on the same tender and we’d all arrive onshore at the same time.  The plan worked perfectly – we all met just outside the dining room, got our tender tickets and were called to board almost immediately and all on the same tender. 

Our guide Estelle was there to meet us when we reached the cruise terminal and we all hoped into a very comfortable 20 seater van and off we set.  She was a lovely lady but her English was very difficult to understand though as time went on I got better at deciphering what she was saying.  At one stage she was talking about somewhere and said ‘ they come there to practice the sky’ and I couldn’t think what she was on about till I realized that she mean ski!  Another classic was when she was talking about Iceland she really meant island – guessing she maybe taught herself from books so didn’t know about the idiosyncrasies of English pronunciation. 

We stopped at a beautiful cathedral made from redwood with a copper roof – copper from the north of Chile and redwood was grown extensively round this area.  Then we visited a monument depicting the arrival of the German settlers in 1852.  The monument shows a native Indian showing them the direction of the Lakes and the Volcanoes – the Indians didn’t want that area as they were scared that the volcanoes  would erupt but the Germans knew that the volcanoes were dormant.   So the Germans settled all around this area and while their descendants are all now Chilean, their heritage still figures strongly in the architecture and generally ambience of the area.

We stopped off at a little roadside café and enjoyed a hot chocolate and saw some llamas.  We continued on to Lake Llanqihue and through the town of Puerto Varas and our next stop was at Petrohue Falls.  They were running pretty brown today as they’d had very heavy rain earlier in the morning but normally they’re a beautiful topaz colour.  We continued on to Lake Esmeralda or Todos los Santos to give its proper name.  This is a beautiful emerald green lake and on the far side the Andes soar up to the sky and beyond them lies Argentina.  It was a pretty misty day with frequent sudden and severe showers but then the sun would pop through.  However this meant we couldn’t actually see the top of the Osorno Volcano. 

We then backtracked to Puerto Varas where Estelle had reserved a couple of tables for us to have lunch.   It was a very pretty restaurant and we had a delicious lunch – fresh pink salmon which the area is famous for with spiced potatoes in a delicious cheese sauce with flecks of chili – oh my so yummy. 

We had a quick wander round the town then back in the van.  We’d a brief stop at a beautiful church and then we drove back to Puerto Montt.  A great tour which cost us $70 US each as opposed to a Princess tour which was $170 US for an almost identical itinerary.

We tried to access the wifi at the cruise terminal but it was pretty hopeless so we came back on board and I used most of the rest of my remaining free ship wifi and got the blog all up to date.

We went up to Crooners and had a drink and a chat to a few people -  met a guy from Cairns who’d spent the previous 12 years in PNG and had a Papuan wife.  He knew Samurai Island well, Sharon. 

Back up to the cabin then and got changed for dinner.  A bit of a mixed bunch tonight – a husband and wife from Kansas City,  two ladies from Sydney and Perth,  Keith from the other night – a Canadian who now lives in Wales, and Dave an Englishman who now lives in Florida.  And yet again great conversation round the table. 

We popped into Crooners and got some crazy pics with the guys there then went down to the Casino – Craig came too for a while then headed up to bed.  I made my money last for a while but eventually bombed out and headed up to bed.