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Published: November 21st 2009
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sunrise from the busWe took the overnight bus form Concepcion to Puerto Montt. We left Concepcion at 11pm. We were on the second level of a double decker bus. We were so excited so I didn´t go to sleep until about 1 or 2 a.m. Christina ended up getting sick on the way. I woke up to a beautiful sunrise. You could see Volcano Osorno. I went to the bathroom but I struggled to get the door open. It was really hard! Granted I wasn´t very awake but I got some weird looks. They served us coffee and cookies on the bus. I don´t usually drink coffee but I liked the stuff they gave us. We arrived at the bus station and realized that we had no idea where our hostel was. Triana called and eventually we figured it out but we were unprepared. We too taxis to the hostel. It was called Hostel Central. We got all checked in. I roomed with Jess A, Jess B and Christina. They were nice rooms and we had our own bathroom.
After we got settled in, Brad, Evin, Christina, Lucas and I went to buy food for breakfast. We soon discovered that none of the grocery
stores near our hostel opened until 10. It was probably 8:30 or 9. We wandered around. We went to a McDonald´s and a pharmacy. We played on a playground and walked around a skate park. Eventually we made it all the way back to the bus station where we knew the grocery stores were open. We bought eggs, bread, cheese, butter, milk, cereal, am, tomatoes, mustard, bananas and orange juice. We returned to the hostel. We made breakfast and ate it up quickly. We were hungry! I helped washed dishes. I dropped a glass back into the sink while I was washing and it broke. Go figure!
A man came and asked if we would like to take a tour. We were tired but it was only 5000 pesos and it sounded like fun so we did it. We all piled into a big van. Not everyone came to stay the night in Puerto Montt so we had only 12 people total. The rest were going to arrive the next day. It was a beautiful sunny day. We went to a place where we could look over the entire city. It was beautiful. Next we went to the neighboring city
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Christina and I of Puerto Varas. We spent some time at the market there and then moved on. We opted to take a boat ride for 1200 pesos. We stopped at the place. You could see where a car had falled off the bridge from above. A man took us in a boat through some woods and down a river where we had a nice view of Volcano Osorno. It was definetly worth the money. When we were finished the mans wife was selling cheese empanadas. I got one and a coke. yum!
After our boat ride we drove for a while and then stopped at a farm. The farm had llamas, emus, cows and i´m sure much more. There was a zip line swing thing that we could go on. It was fun. I realized I´m just not a big fan of llamas. I always think they are going to spit on me. We left the farm and we were getting hungry! We stopped to eat lunch. I had an avocado and chicken sandwich. I also had a cappaucino and a popsicle. Throughout our trip we stopped at a few lakes. They are all so pretty. One of our last stops was
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Puerto Montt the National Park. It was so aweome! There was the most blue water i´ve ever seen. There were lots of raging rapids. The rapids were splashing up onto the place where we could look from and it got my pants wet. I slipped and fell on the rocks once too. The park was closing so we didn´t spend too much time there. We stopped at a few more places just to look around and take pictures on teh way back. We finally returned to Puerto Montt around 7.
We got dropped off in Angelmo. Its a neighborhood filled with seafood restaurants and shops. Everything was closing down but we decided to go somewhere to eat. We went to a place where I got salmon, soup, pisco, bread and salad for 3000 pesos ($6). It was really good. The restaurant was really hot though. We opened some windows up. One almost fell out when we opened it. oops! We took collectivos back to our hostel. We talked with Profe in our room for a while and later went to bed.
We all wanted to shower when we woke up in the morning but the hot water wasn´t working upstairs. There was
one shower downstairs that we could use but we had to take turns. Christina, Lucas, and I decided to take a quick trip to the store to get snacks for the boat while we were waiting. We hurried back. I showered and got ready really quickly. We were supposed to check in at the boat by noon. Christina, Jess A and I took a collectivo to the port. We checked in and then went to shop at the little shops. I bought some souvenirs. I also got an ice cream cone and an empanada. We returned to the boat office for our safety talk and then it was time to board the boat.
We walked onto the bottom of the ship and waited on a big lift to take us up. There were lots of semi trucks loaded on the bottom level of the boat. There was a trailer with cows and horses in it. We got all settled in our rooms. Since we had all checked in at different times we were all messed up as far as who was rooming with who and in what rooms. Most of our suitcases were in the wrong rooms. The handle on
my big suitcase ripped when we were moving it. I guess my suitcase was a little too heavy. I ended up rooming with Jess A., Profe Triana and Christina. We had our own private bathroom in our room. We got settled in and explored the boat a little. Soon it was time for dinner. We had soup, salad, salmon, mashed potatoes, bread, juice and apples. They didn´t want us to be hungry I guess! After dinner, since it was Halloween, we got dressed up. Christina and I were pirates. We went downstairs where there was karaoke going on. Everyone laughed at us and we paraded around the room. We ran around the boat and went to bed around 1 am.
The next day we got up for breakfast. There was eggs, bread, tea, cheese, ham, yogurt, cereal and juice. After breakfast we sat around the dining room and listened to a talk for awhile. I went back to our room to organize my things. I showered and got ready and then I wrote in my journal for awhile. We are lunch and then it was time to get off the boat. We were docked in Puerto Chacabuco. We had decided
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Puerto Varas to take the optional tour that was offered because it was kind of expensive. The first sign that we probably should have went on the tour was that when we walked into the town, there was a group of cows just wandering through the town and munching on grass in the main plaza.
We just walked around. We stopped at a little store to get snacks and water. I didn´t get anything there. We just kept walking. There was an old broken down bus that people were playing in. We walked around some more. I went to a different little store to get water. We sat on a big hill that overlooked the port for awhile. There is a really nice hotel there that we went into to use the bathroom. We went to the playground in the main plaza and played on the teeter totters and swings. That was fun until we realized that the paint was wet on the equipment. Christina and Hayley played soccer with some little boys.
It was cold and starting to rain so we decided to head back to the boat. Too bad for us the boat had moved and docked a little ways
out so we couldn´t get on. We waited and waited. They finally opened the Navimag office for us to sit in since it was cold out. Hayley found a stick and some people started playing limbo. Finally after about 2 hours of waited we were able to get back on the boat. When we got back on the boat we had supper. We had torta de choclo which is a corn pie thing. It was yummy. After dinner I took a nap. After that we all went downstairs and danced.
The next day on the boat was the day we got to go to the glacier. We got up and ate breakfast and then got all dressed up to go. We had take small boats from our big boat to the glacier because it is too dangerous to take the big boat near the glacier. It was finally our turn to go. We got life jackets and boarded the little boat. We drove closer and closer to the glacier. It was kind of scary, hitting little chunks of ice along the way but the ice was beautiful. Because of the light, the little glaciers were a bright bright blue color.
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clear water There was a sea lion in the water but I didn´t see it. The glacier we went to see is melting very quickly. Several big chunks fell while we were looking at it. You can´t go close to the glacier for this reason. The glacier used to be safe enough to walk on. It is melting so fast now that it is expected to be completely gone in 20 years. That is just sad! We returned to the big Navimag boat. They had glasses of glacier ice and whiskey waiting for us. Whiskey is not good at all but it is especially bad at 10 am. I dumped my whiskey out and put pop in my glass.
Later we ate lunch. After lunch I took a nap. I went out on the top of the boat for awhile. Later a bunch of people wanted to play poker so I played. It was a lot of fun. I was doing really well for awhile but I didn´t win. We ate supper and after that I took a shower. They divided the boat members into two teams, red and blue and there was a competition. There were many parts to the competition
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boat tour such as a Mr. and Mrs. Legs contest, lots of games and a costume contest. I had to wear my pirate costume again for the contest. It was fun but I was kind of tired so I didn´t watch much. I went back to my room and went to bed.
The next day we decided to take the optional tour of Aysén. We got up, ate breakfast and got ready. We got of the boat in Puerto Chacabuco again. We took buses. Our first stop was a bridge and we walked along the road for aways. After the bridge we went to the plaza where we could walk around. After that we made a quick stop to take pictures of another bridge and then we continued to a little shopping place in Aysén. It was nice to get off the boat and walk around but the tour wasn´t very exciting. We got back on the boat and had lunch. After lunch I took a nap. Christina and I went up to the top of the boat for awhile and listened to our i-pods and danced around. After that we all just sat around, being lazy, until it was time for
dinner. After dinner there was bingo. It was fun but I didnt win at all.
Our last day on the boat was pretty boring. We ate breakfast and then got our suitcases all packed up and ready. We ate lunch and then it was time to get off the boat. I decided to go to the Island of Chiloé with Alison, Catie, Hayley, Al, Jess, Evin and Brad when we got off the boat. We brought all our luggage off with us so we could just leave. We walked to the bus station. We found out that the ferries were on strike and we couldn´t get to to Chiloé that day. After some debate we finally decided to jump on a bus and spend the night in the city of Osorno and then see if we could go to Chiloé the next day.
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