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Published: June 29th 2017
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Geo: -41.4752, -72.9521
We awoke to another beautiful sunny day, anchored in the bay near Puerto Montt. Todays adventure would take us between two imposing volcanoes; Calbuco and Osorno. The former, visible from the bay recently erupted just last year in late 2015. Our guide advised us there are still concerns of this repeating - whilst Calbuco is usually coated with snow, its currently dry as a bone its wide flat summit both rocky and dusty, possibly due to increased heat levels.
Osorno was a different spectacle; a wider volcano with a sharper point for a summit and a little taller. The top third of the mountain was dusted in snow, glistening in the brilliant sunshine. Our route took us via Puerto Varas, a German settled town offering notably different architecture to the rest of Chile. This modern town is both a favorite tourist spot and home to many more wealthy locals with some grand homes on the edge of lake Llanquihue.
We continued on via a couple of scenic spots to Vicente Perez Rosales National Park. Our time here was a little more limited than we would have liked, but we still made the most of it. Against the beautiful backdrop of Osorno
volcano, thick woodlands, towering cliff faces, volcanic sand and pebbles, and aquamarine-turquoise streams. The Petrohue rapids themselves, powered through rocky crevasses below, powerful, fast and spectacular. We dodged the shambling crowds to rush to another side track leading to a green lagoon. The bus took us just a little further to the Petrohue Rapids lodge, overlooking lake Todos los Santos, which marked the border with Argentina. This lake was amazing, still, beautiful bright blue waters with a backdrop of forests and jagged mountain peaks. After spending some time here, we began the long drive back to Puerto Montt.
As usual, at the conclusion of our tour, we opted to spend a few hours exploring the main port of call ourselves, on foot. Now being Good Friday, a large majority of shops, cafes and restaurants were closed. That aside, we still didn't find a lot to do, look at or eat. In fact, this city was definitely the grungiest spot we'd seen on the trip to date. There were dozens of drunks and beggars about and the streets were pretty dirty, poorly maintained and vandalized. Perhaps the towns economy and state is still deteriorated from the recent volcanic eruptions. We opted to
bypass the few cafes we found which didn't look at all appealing and head back to the ship.
Time enough for a late lunch and gym session before dinner. Just a day of sailing ahead and two sleeps until we arrive at our final destination (Valparaiso) and our cruise comes to an end. We've loved the cruise. I still maintain that cruises are an extremely cost effective, comfortable and efficient way of traveling and covering a lot of distance and destinations. However, cruises do have their limitations and downsides. Two weeks is a good healthy limit for a cruise duration. Ive just about had my fill of shambling, shuffling and immobile cruise passengers. Just walking 100 metres from a bar or restaurant should take minutes, not hours. My ears have had their fill of petty complaints, negativity, arrogance, rudeness, snoring, coughing, hacking and wheezing. Ive had enough of being crammed into a buffet diner, waiting as someone fails to understand how to make an instant coffee or becomes mindlessly static at the front of the food queue. Perhaps they've panicked or become indecisive of the epic choice of food has become too much. Perhaps they just forgot where they were. Getting
through doors or security has never been so difficult. Endless cruise passenger negativity has never been so psychologically sapping. Generally feeble, frustrating and incapable passengers have never been so frustrating. A bit of comfort is nice, but pampering and excessive, forced, obligated courtesies become tiresome.
We've met some lovely people and had a great time, but were looking forward to a relaxing conclusion to the cruise, getting out on our own again, getting our feet on dry land and ready for the next chapter of our honeymoon.
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