Blogs from Puerto Montt, Los Lagos, Chile, South America - page 2

DAY 18 Today was an early 6 am alarm for a 7 am start with an initial 5 hr drive south from the Paine National Park to Punta Arenas airport via Porta Natales and then a 2 hr flight to Puerto Montt. From Puerto Montt our hotel was located a further 90 min drive to the shores of Todos los Santos, a deep crystaline emerald lake with the stunning backdrop of snowcapped Volcano Osorno. All up a 12 hr day travelling but at least we left behind some nasty weather. Tiring for recovering sick passengers. The hotel itself is like a Swiss chalet and very welcome and an exciting day awaits tomorrow at our doorstep.... read more

L’embarquement pour le ferry est annoncé entre 9h et 11h, mais quand on s’y arrive présente à 10h, ils nous annoncent que le bateau qui arrive du sud (et que nous devons prendre) a du retard, donc que nous pouvons revenir vers 16h…Ok, donc qu’allons-nous faire car on a vraiment épuisé les maigres possibilités de la ville où nous sommes déjà restés trop longtemps. Finalement, l’option la plus sympa est d’aller faire un tour à Puerto Varas près du lac, où j’étais le week-end dernier. Oui, comme un air de déjà vu ! Comme j’ai déjà fait le tour de la ville, je me pose dans un café (réserver les billets pour l’île de Pâques, ouuuui !) et je laisse les autres se balader. Une pause bien agréable avant de retrouver la salle d’embarquement où nous ... read more

Saturday 23/2/13 – This morning we woke up and did some quick shopping before leaving the northern Chilean city of Calama. Kenz’s blow-up mattress has been leaking recently through the valve and it no longer stayed inflated for the whole night. We went to the local hardware store and bought a $10 replacement which looks the business (it has been encouragingly nicknamed ‘Cloud 9’). As we left Calama we rode through the largely abandoned town of Chuquicamata which has recently been displaced by the encroachment of the biggest open pit copper mine in the world. We tried to organise a tour of the mine, however we would have had to wait 4 days before we could get access. We left Chuquicamata and rode to the coastal city of Antofagasta. Just north of the city we crossed ... read more

The ship arrives in Puerto Montt around 8 am and we are tended to shore and on a bus by 9:30. This is a full-day excursion of the city and the surrounding area. The weather is cloudy and rainy but fairly warm at about 15°C. Puerto Montt, named for a former Chilean president, is an attractive but mostly industrial city of 180,000 people. The big industry in town is salmon farming, which has been going on for about a decade. About four years ago, there was a disease crisis with the fish that caused the complete collapse of the industry, but it is now healthy again. The other interesting thing about the area is that it was originally settled by Germans around 1850, and the various towns retain a certain Teutonic charm. Puerto Montt is literally ... read more

We woke up this morning and found ourselves in Alaska! Temperature in the middle 50’s, a few snow-capped peaks of the Andes in the foggy distance, and a hard rain falling. Many of the people were going on long tours today, but we decided to take a pass on ours because of a potential lack of communication and the fact that once we leave Puerto Montt, the only way to find us is at sea or amongst the glaciers and fjords of Terre del Paine National Park, and that’s a hard find! Puerto Montt is a beautiful city that we did not have enough time to hang around in and explore. Surrounded by pine trees and the smell of home fires for warmth remind of our home in Pollock Pines. It was great to smell that ... read more