DAY-20 Puerto Montt, Chile - The Volcanic Region
DAY-20: Puerto Montt, Chile - The Volcanic Region
Day – 20: Sunday, March 8, 2020
Starting Location: At Sea Aboard the M.S. Marina
Interim Location: Anchored at Puerto Montt, Chile
Ending Location: At Sea Aboard the M.S. Marina
This morning we entered the harbor at Puerto Montt, Chile.
This area is known as the volcanic region. The picture below shows three volcanoes the third being a tiny distant peak in between the two larger volcanoes.
As with many South American harbors there's a large hillside cross overlooking the approach. This cross is backed by a series of communication antennas and towers.
Today's tour began around 9:30 this morning. We took a bus ride into the countryside. We passed through Puerto Varas, a lakeside resort town where we would return later in the afternoon. Our first stops were lake and volcano view points. The most dramatic feature of today's trip is the Calbuco Volcano; classified as a stratovolcano, it stands 6,611 feet high and last erupted in April 2015.
Our first "rest" stop was just outside of Puerto Varas at a small restaurant/inn that happened to be the home of a small llama herd. Clearly a mixed herd as all llama colors seemed to be represented.
We moved on to various park areas, all in one way or another related to the volcanoes; rapidly moving streams fed by the volcano snow caps or lava tubes channeling water through rugged ravines and canyons.
As mentioned we stopped in Puerto Varas on the return trip, giving us about an hour of exploring, eating and drinking time in town.
We walked the short distance from our parking to the Plaza De Armas past a wide variety of flowering plants and shrubs. Sheila can be seen posing with those ever-elusive Agapanthas.
Today, March 8th was International Women's Day and in Puerto Varas the people were celebrating and maybe a few were protesting, all peaceful for sure with mostly smiles and happy people. In the park we were drawn to a large gathering, including speeches and Andean spirit music for background. This was great, it's not often we find ourselves immersed in the non-tourist culture of the countries we visit. As we were only a stones throw from the local Irish pub, we stopped over for a pint, that would be as in beer for me and ice cream for Sheila.
Our timing was good, as soon after being seated at Pim's Pub the Women's Day parade and march entered the town square adjacent to our location.
After our rest we continued the journey returning to Puerto Montt passing en-route an Indura Gas plant, one of the Chilean industrial gas plants that I had likely visited years ago for BOC.
At the wine bar we sat with a couple from the Houston area. For a retirement hobby the former Boeing electrical engineer had decided to drink away the Boeing stock crash woes and enroll in an online wine certification course, Napa, California based. Apparently there are a series of levels for wine experts so he was beginning his trip up the ladder. I was curious about all of his notes and how one would actually test a wine tester/taster. Here's his notes from just one glass of wine. I don't know the acronyms and personal abbreviations used in the notes but wow that's a lot of info for one glass, wonder if he had any time to enjoy the wine?
After the wine, we did finally make it to the restaurant, it was Chez Jacques for the night. While working on the bread serving we happened to notice the setting or rising moon. It must be rising, as it's practically a full moon, it wouldn't be setting until morning. Perhaps even having that thought is an indication of too much wine tonight.
Interim Location: Anchored at Puerto Montt, Chile
Ending Location: At Sea Aboard the M.S. Marina
This morning we entered the harbor at Puerto Montt, Chile.
This area is known as the volcanic region. The picture below shows three volcanoes the third being a tiny distant peak in between the two larger volcanoes.
As with many South American harbors there's a large hillside cross overlooking the approach. This cross is backed by a series of communication antennas and towers.
Today's tour began around 9:30 this morning. We took a bus ride into the countryside. We passed through Puerto Varas, a lakeside resort town where we would return later in the afternoon. Our first stops were lake and volcano view points. The most dramatic feature of today's trip is the Calbuco Volcano; classified as a stratovolcano, it stands 6,611 feet high and last erupted in April 2015.
Our first "rest" stop was just outside of Puerto Varas at a small restaurant/inn that happened to be the home of a small llama herd. Clearly a mixed herd as all llama colors seemed to be represented.
We moved on to various park areas, all in one way or another related to the volcanoes; rapidly moving streams fed by the volcano snow caps or lava tubes channeling water through rugged ravines and canyons.
As mentioned we stopped in Puerto Varas on the return trip, giving us about an hour of exploring, eating and drinking time in town. We walked the short distance from our parking to the Plaza De Armas past a wide variety of flowering plants and shrubs. Sheila can be seen posing with those ever-elusive Agapanthas.
Today, March 8th was International Women's Day and in Puerto Varas the people were celebrating and maybe a few were protesting, all peaceful for sure with mostly smiles and happy people. In the park we were drawn to a large gathering, including speeches and Andean spirit music for background. This was great, it's not often we find ourselves immersed in the non-tourist culture of the countries we visit. As we were only a stones throw from the local Irish pub, we stopped over for a pint, that would be as in beer for me and ice cream for Sheila. 
Our timing was good, as soon after being seated at Pim's Pub the Women's Day parade and march entered the town square adjacent to our location.
After our rest we continued the journey returning to Puerto Montt passing en-route an Indura Gas plant, one of the Chilean industrial gas plants that I had likely visited years ago for BOC.
Tonight we had a conflict of schedules. Our wine tasting was to overlap our dinner reservation! What could we do? Well let's ask the ship's executive chef to adjust our dinner reservation, problem solved.
At the wine bar we sat with a couple from the Houston area. For a retirement hobby the former Boeing electrical engineer had decided to drink away the Boeing stock crash woes and enroll in an online wine certification course, Napa, California based. Apparently there are a series of levels for wine experts so he was beginning his trip up the ladder. I was curious about all of his notes and how one would actually test a wine tester/taster. Here's his notes from just one glass of wine. I don't know the acronyms and personal abbreviations used in the notes but wow that's a lot of info for one glass, wonder if he had any time to enjoy the wine?
After the wine, we did finally make it to the restaurant, it was Chez Jacques for the night. While working on the bread serving we happened to notice the setting or rising moon. It must be rising, as it's practically a full moon, it wouldn't be setting until morning. Perhaps even having that thought is an indication of too much wine tonight.
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