March 16 – Puerto Montt Chile

After several days at sea, we are finally starting to see civilization again. We’ve pulled into the Esmeralda Channel on our way to the Puerto Montt Chile.  We are starting to see some small farms on the surrounding islands.  Also there have been several fishing vessels and a crab fisherman in the channel.

The weather has not yet turned warm.  I guess the prevailing weather systems must still originate in the Antarctic. The expected high temperature is about 12 degrees with the wind making it seem even colder. 

Celebrity has gone out of its way to compensation us for the ports that were missed due to the storm and the earlier medical emergency.  We are getting fifty dollars to be applied to our cabin’s on-board account and we will be refunded the equivalent of one whole day on the cruise on our credit card.  That should be about six hundred dollars.

Because Puerto Montt’s harbor is shallow, we have to take a tender boat to go ashore. As you can imagine after three straight days at sea, everyone wants to go ashore.  This combined with the fact that we were late getting into Puerto Montt has resulted in complete chaos.  Passengers who had not booked an excursion had to wait for about three hours before a tender was available.

The only good thing about Puerto Montt is that it leads to somewhere else. The town was built in the early twentieth century and most of the houses are in serious need of repair.  They are crammed together and infested with graffiti.

We booked an excursion to Vincinte Perez Rosales National Park.  Enroute we passed through a resort town call Puerto Vagas.  It is situated on Lake Lianquihuead and appears to have many fine hotels and restaurants. This area was settled by German immigrants and the architecture is very much in the style that you would see in southern Germany or Switzerland.

We continued north until we got to Vincinte Perez Rosales National Park.  As fate would have it when we arrived it started to pour rain. We did a short hike and came across the Petrohue River.  This river, at the foot of the Andes mountains, has an impressive set of rapids. 

Had it not been so cloudy we apparently would have had a spectacular view of a volcano.  Last year this volcano erupted and melted a portion of a glacier that resided along its eastern ridge.  The resulting landslide wiped out the main road to the park.  The road is now open but you can still see wide stretches where the vegetation has been demolished and new creeks have been formed.

Wouldn’t you know it.  As soon as we boarded the ship, the rain stopped and a gorgeous sunset appeared through the rapidly dissipating clouds.

For diner Marg had fish and chips and I had prime rib.   Both were very good.  Our wait staff has been excellent.  We have never lacked for anything and the service has been prompt and attentive.  Our wine glasses are never empty and the port is delivered to our table without us even asking.  All in all it has been a great dinning experience.