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Published: February 18th 2017
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Protestors
which causes our tour to be cancelled Welcome to Puerto Montt, Chile.
The sea got pretty rough last night but about 3:30 we pulled into some more sheltered waters and it suddenly got nice and smooth. This morning we were anchored in calm waters about half a mile from shore. So anyone following us on the map can point further south from Valparaiso. Puerto Montt is 41°28′S, which is approximately the same line as Wellington NZ. In comparison to something in the Northern Hemisphere, it is roughly equivalent to Cleveland, Ohio. It was chillier today than the previous days, and was overcast all day long. We dressed in sweatshirt today for our excursion as the high was expected to only reach 60 degrees. Brrrrr.
We went to the Horizon Court buffet breakfast and we were surprised that it wasn’t very crowded. It was easy and tasty, without much fuss or bother. We went down to the kickoff point in the Princess Theater for our 9:15 departure. They passed out stickers to assign everyone to buses and had us wait for our turn to board the “tender” to get to shore. But rather than getting started, we were told that unfortunately another labor
Peurto Montt
Looking at shops along one street strike was occurring outside the port gates. The cruise company had expected the police to intercede and allow us to go on our tour, but they did not, and we did not. The tour was cancelled before we could even leave the theater.
Some of the earlier departing tours were actually sitting on their buses for a couple of hours before they finally were cancelled in the parking lot – at least we did not have that inconvenience. It’s too bad because we were to have a trip through town and then out to a cattle ranch where we were going to see demonstrations of horsemanship followed by an authentic BBQ lunch. Along the way we were to have a spectacular view of the snow-covered Osorno volcano. As it turns out we got none of that.
Instead Janet went back to the cabin and worked on her needlework and watched part of a movie. David got on one of the tenders and went ashore. The protestors were only blocking the bus access, which meant pedestrians could come and go. David was able to walk the half mile or so to the center of town
Big Statue
on the shore in Puerto Montt and wandered around taking a few pictures and looking into some of the shops. He was able to get Janet 3 bundles of yarn so she has some kind of souvenir from a place she only saw from the ship’s balcony, but that’s how it worked out.
David got back to the ship about noon. The demonstrators had gone away some time before 11:30 but apparently all the morning excursions had been cancelled by that time. If there were any tours scheduled for the afternoon then they may have occurred, but we didn’t try going anywhere again. It had started sprinkling while David was in the town and he was fairly damp by the time he got back to the port for the return tender.
After a quick change, we went up to the Trident Grill and had a little lunch. Janet had two of their super-hotdogs and David had a cheeseburger and fries. It was a bit too chilly to eat outside so we went inside to the Horizon Court. David got a bit of dessert too. Then we spent most of the afternoon in the cabin, watching it rain outside the balcony
but being restful inside. Maybe missing the outdoor excursion might not have been so terrible after all.
We heard from Stephanie again and she is feeling a bit better and still hopes to go home this weekend. Valerie and Elizabeth went to visit her in the hospital and she was happy to have some visitors. Apparently the weather has been great (high of 75 degrees today) and she would rather be outside than in the hospital, but she knows there is going to be several weeks ahead of resting indoors at home.
We went to the Stargazer Lounge again this evening for appetizers. Yesterday the specialty had been Steak Tartare with Melba Toast and assorted other choices. Today the special was Smoked Salmon with Toast Points and various cheeses and vegis. Today Janet decided to pass up another Scotch cocktail and had a Cosmopolitan while David had another Heineken. The captain came on the speaker system and apologized for having so many tours cancelled and promised they were working hard with official in the final Chilean port to try to avoid the same issue happening again. He also said that we would be sailing
Shoreline
in Puerto Montt down through the protective fjords during the night and we should have a much smoother cruise, however tomorrow he had to come out into the ocean and there is a 35 knot crosswind expected, so we will probably have a rough time for several hours in the afternoon. We will wait and see how this all turns out.
We went on to dinner and found that only one other person joined us tonight. Monte was sleeping in so Fay came by herself. The other couple was a no-show without any explanation, although Pauline had been seasick yesterday. We both had a seafood medley appetizer with baby shrimps and scallops. Then we each had a Caesar Salad. Janet had the Pork Chop entrée and David had Jerk Chicken. For dessert Janet had a hot brownie with ice cream and David had Key Lime pie.
We went back to the cabin where Janet started watching a movie that she had seen different portions of twice earlier n the afternoon. Maybe she will be able to piece all the sections together in her mind to make one full movie. David went to the Princess Theater and watched
a pop/rock singer, who played the guitar, the piano, the harmonica, the saxophone, and the drums (not all at the same time).
So that pretty well wraps it up for today.
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Janel
non-member comment
What happened to Stephanie? Glad she's okay, but seems a long time in hospital. Also glad you're doing this trip. It's the one Mama went on then fractured her shoulder in rough seas off Cape Horn and had to be flown back at next stop. I remember she was kind of put out about that, then really irritated when she got back to Phoenix and the doc said he couldn't do much about it, would heal on its own so she could've really completed the trip. Anyway good luck in the next bit. Have fun and keep your sea legs going. Best wis h es to Stephanie.