Puerto Montt, Chile

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Santiago was a nice clean, modern city. Lots of construction and many new buildings. I was too tired to do much exploring but I did find a new mall and checked it out! There was a major delay with the ship getting to port and then it had to be sanitized before anybody could get on board. It was nice to relax once we were allowed in to our staterooms. Luggage took a couple of hours to get here too.

The first day was spent at sea. The wind was very strong and walking on deck was hazardous. The roof was closed and the swimming pool wasn't open. In fact the water from the pool was sloshing all over the deck.

Today's firs t port was Puerto Montt. Took a coach to Petrohue Falls, a lake cruise and a stop in Puerto Varas. The countryside was very much like our Rockies especially the lake cruise, except our mountains are taller and there is more snow on top. We did see a dormant volcano called Osorno not more than 4,000 ft. high with a huge glacier ontop. There are approx. 4,000 volcanos in Chile; with most of the mountains in the Andes not going over 7,000 ft.

Ensanada is the entry point to the Andes and the Perez Rosales National Park. 450,000 hectares of protected land. Not much in the way of wildlife, just a few deer. Due to the old glaciers and sediment the water was tinged with green but very clear. I thought I was on Lake Louise! Petrohue Falls was very fast moving water not that high but very pretty to watch.

The word Patagonia actually means the Land of the Feet and is the entrance to South America. Weather started off at 12C and didn't get much more than 15C although the sun did shine for a while this afternoon.

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