Land Ahoy!

Saturday February 22, 2020

Puerto Montt, Chile

We were due to dock at Puerto Montt about 8am.  We were slightly ahead of schedule so we were able to watch the docking process before breakfast.  And, yes, they served us breakfast at the usual time, 8-9am.  They have a tight routine for loading and off-loading so passengers were scheduled to get off around 9:30.  We were a bit after that but no one seemed to be in a big rush to get rid of us.  There were shuttle buses waiting for us once we were off.  The pier was actually quite a ways west of town so the shuttle took us to the main bus terminal.  All was going swimmingly until Jill realized that she had left one of her backpacks on the ferry - oops!  Navimag was on it, though, and the pack was safe and sound in their office before we were able to track down where the office was located (not far from the bus terminal).

We have been so fortunate with the weather.  Today is yet another blue sky and calm day.  We have moved much further north so today is definitely a shorts and t-shirt day.

Puerto Montt has a lovely harbour and the city (population 245,000) crawls up the considerable hillside away from the harbour.  Our hostel is a fair distance up one of those hills so we hopped in a cab for the ride up.  Our accommodation is a bit unusual.  It almost seems more like a B&B than a hostel.  One minor problem, though.  It's now past 8:30 pm as I write this and no one has shown up who seems to be in charge or speaks any English.  Oh well - we have our room.  We just have to sort out payment.

After we dropped off our stuff we headed out on foot for the local municipal market.  Oh - how I would love to have a market like that in Calgary!  Lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, and tons (literally) of seafood!  We bought only enough stuff for dinner (mostly veggies, which we were sorely lacking on board the ferry).  We went upstairs and found a small restaurant serving a variety of seafood dishes, and snagged a window seat overlooking the city and the harbour - so nice - and the food was very good, too.

We did an extended walk along the seawall.  Being a Saturday, it was a busy place.  There was a constant stream of passenger boats taking people over to a small island with a great-looking beach.  There were lots of vendors with their wares spread out on blankets on the ground.  We stopped a few times simply to watch the world go by but eventually made our way back up to the hostel.  It was a pretty warm afternoon, especially on the big stair climb!  Our veggie dinner was just perfect.....

Many of the public statues and monuments in Chile have been defaced with graffiti and red paint.  Apparently the red paint coming from eye sockets is because it is common practice for the authorities to shoot protesters in the eyes with rubber bullets to blind them but not kill them.  We will see much more of this defacing & destruction in Santiago.  

Other than paid excursions that we could have taken, I think we had a pretty good overview of the city.  Off to Puerto Varas tomorrow..............