PUERTO MONTT, CHILE

Today, we arrived in Puerto Montt, and we were on a half-day’s tour escorting duty, to Petrohue and Puerto Varas.

The region we are in is described simply as the Chilean ‘Lake District’, situated roughly a third of a the way up the long, thin length of Chile, and Puerto Montt is its gateway. The region is a major world exporter of salmon, and has many volcanoes, one of which (Calbuco) had a large eruption as recently as 2015.

The scenery, as we drove towards our first destination on the tour, was quite stunning, with the huge expanse of Lake Lanquihue ever-present, and a skyline dominated by the snow-capped Osorno Volcano, looking remarkably like Mount Fuji.

Our first stop was a brief photo call, by the banks of the great lake, looking towards the volcano, although everyone was also attracted to a llama farm on the opposite side of the road.

Soon after this, we entered the Vicente Perez Rozales National Park, and arrived at our main objective; Petrohue Waterfall.

The falls, forcing their way through volcanic rock as they do, were suitably impressive. Not only that; the conditions were about as perfect as we could possibly have hoped. Despite being cool, the sky was clear, and surrounding wooded hills were bathed in the warm light of the morning sun.

On our return journey, we had a 45-minute free-time stop at Puerto Varas, known as The City of Roses, situated on the banks of the lake. It’s a charming place, clearly geared towards tourists, with lots of things to do. There are lots of craft shops there, and a small square, where a band brandishing pan pipes of all shapes and sizes were playing. It was all very relaxed and quite lovely.

In fact, for what was a relatively short, on-the-bus-off-the-bus tour, both Tracey and I really enjoyed it. Such stops are often quite boring, their primary objective being to get passengers into the craft shops and spending money. The guide on my coach (Stephanie) was the daughter of the guide on Tracey’s coach (Ingrid), both of whom did their jobs brilliantly. Stephanie told us all about life in Chile and showed us photos she’d taken of the 2015 volcanic eruption of Calbuco volcano in 2015, from where she and her mother lived, on the opposite side of the lake.

We were back at the ship in time for lunch, after which I spent the afternoon battling with poor internet in the Captain’s Club while Tracey spent the time photographing wildlife out on deck. It was only after we were leaving that I realised I could have saved myself a great deal of time and frustration if I’d taken advantage of the free wi-fi in the terminal (which was very fast, apparently).

In the evening, as we left Puerto Montt, on our way towards our next Chilean port, the sea became misty and the soon-to-be-setting sun was hazy – very atmospheric…