Puerto Montt

We woke up this morning anchored in Puerto Montt, Chile. We looked out the window and were greeted with an overcast sky and pelting rain.

Our Zaandam

Puerto Montt was our first port of call and after a few hundred meter journey to shore we had until 4:30 to return to the ship for a 5 pm sailing.

Puerto Montt is a port city of around 200,000 in southern Chile’s Lake District.  It is known as a gateway to the Andes mountains and the Patagonian fjords.  It was established in 1853 and most of the buildings were built from wood in the 19th century.  The devastating earthquake of June 20, 1960, ensured that not many of the original structures remain.

A Little Damp But We Made The Best of It!

The process of tendering off the boat proved relatively smooth.  We collected our tender tickets and sat in a public area to wait for our call.  We had only sat down for less than half an hour when our number came up.  We quickly descended to the bottom deck, stepped onto the boat, and were whisked to shore.

Three of These Guys At Work All Day

The advertised excursions in this port all centered around drives into the mountains to view the fauna, foliage and nearby volcano.  We’re glad we didn’t spend the money.  The socked in weather would have hidden the views.

We decided to walk the town and take in the fish market, artisanal shops, and the Historical Museum.

We donned our rain gear and set out.  Puerto Montt is a fishing village and salmon are in abundance in these waters.  The market was full of huge pink salmon and other seafood.

The artisanal shops are mostly full of tourist trinkets.  There were many wood carvings and paintings but the highlights were the alpaca knitwear.

We spent a few hours in the shops and then we were off to the museum.  Puerto Montt has an interesting history.  It was first settled by the indigenous Mapuche peoples, that were attracted to its protected waters and abundant sea life.  In the 1840s things changed.  Chile adopted a country-specific immigration law to attract German people to the area.  While there is no official documented reasons on display, it is speculated that Germans were chosen as a way of bringing some northern European genes to add to the “shorter” “smaller” Chilean physical characteristic gene pool.  We didn’t see any 2 meters +, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Chileans walking around the town so I'm not sure it worked.

German citizens were offered free land to settle in the area.  Initially, there were about 6000 attracted to the offer.  The museum is Spanish only but the pictures tell the story of the immigration and have many artifacts as evidence of the German settlement.  Some buildings appeared to have architectural lines that reminded us of those in Germany. Unlike most South American communities, a Protestant church is the center of the religious community rather than Catholic.  We were told that German is still the preferred language in some of the smaller satellite communities and that some schools are still taught entirely in German.

Drenched and hungry, we returned to the boat in the afternoon well before the scheduled departure.

Embarkation

We made it.  At the time of this writing, I am sitting on our outside cabin deck as we sail south along the Chilean coastline on Holland America’s Zaandam.  It is our first “Cruise” and while we have a bit to learn, we have settled into onboard life with ease.

View From Our Room

We enjoyed our one night stay at the Patio Ferreira B&B in Cartagena.  It was run by two couples and sits on a hill overlooking the town's beach.  We enjoyed hearing about the area from our hostess, Belinda. Her English was very good. She had worked as an interpreter earlier in her life.  The neighborhood houses date back to the early 1900's.

Cartagena's Main Beach

Like the Neighbourhood, It Has Seen Better Days

On the morning of November 19, we called a taxi to transfer us a short journey to the cruise ship terminal in the port city of San Antonio. We had been told by seasoned “cruisers” to be prepared for long line-ups as we boarded the ship.  Our experience proved nothing like that.  We arrived at 12:30PM for a 1PM  boarding time.  We were immediately met by a young woman who whisked our bags away.  Every 50 meters thereafter we were met by a smiling Holland America employee directing us to the registration desk.  We arrived and almost immediately we were at the registration desk.

We had a small snag at registration.  Cruise ships are incredibly diligent in making sure no personal alcohol gets on board.  I suddenly remembered that the two bottles of wine we were allowed, were not in our carry-on. We had left it in our luggage. The young attendant told us the bags would be searched and our two bottles of wine would be destroyed.  We had quickly accepted the fact since it was our error when a more senior official came over and interceded.  Since we had just dropped off our bags she made an immediate call.  Sure enough, the wine was left in our suitcases and delivered to our room.  All is good except personal wine is not allowed in the room.  Now we have to keep it hidden from our room attendant or face an $18 US charge each for corkage fees.

The Zaandam is not a huge ship with only around 1500 passengers.  Our room is on the port-side on the sixth floor (out of 8) and at the stern of the ship.  Our ventures up to the pointy end suggest that we have a much more comfortable ride at the round end rather than the pointy end.  We have been traveling at around 17 knots in 9-foot swells.  We rock gently but you often have to hold on to the handrails when descending the stairs.  No seasickness yet but tomorrow we face 13-foot swells.  We may have to break out the seasick pills and wristbands.

Home For The Next Two Weeks

Pushed Away From The Dock

The clientele on the ship is largely older than ourselves.  So far we have kept our own company but we will meet others in the days ahead.

The ship has a very large group of French citizens, easily the largest contingent on the ship.  Despite the problems that can arise when one group is so large in terms of going to dinner, waiting for shows, etc. it hasn’t been a problem excluding a small dust-up I had with a French group leader as he tried to budge one of his own in the dinner line.  I only gave way when the poor old guy pointed a finger at his leader and said, “He likes to think he is the boss” and then rolled his eyes with a smirk.

We are still exploring the ship’s possibilities but have already eaten in two of the five dining areas.  Deborah is determined that we try them all.  We are going to have a lot of walking on the Lido deck if I am to fit into my clothes at the end of the two weeks. 

We have bought the wine package.  They hold on to the bottles and pour you glasses as required.  Cocktails and beers can be purchased at any time, anywhere.

We will have been at sea for 36 hours before we reach our first port of call.  We will anchor in the bay at Puerto Montt, Chile.  We will arrive at 8 am and take tenders to shore to explore, before returning by 5 pm.  We have decided that the ship's tours are too expensive so we will be using local buses and taxis.

We don't know when this post will be published.  The Internet can be spotty.

Emiliana Vineyard & Valparaiso

Our last day in Santiago was actually spent on the road.  We booked a Wine and port city Valparaiso Tour.  It was advertised as an 8-hour tour that morphed into 13.  Not a hard complaint, just saying.

We were picked up at 8AM and after some bus shuffles due to administrative screw-ups we were off to the Casablanca Valley.  The valley is home to a large number of vineyards.  After visiting the winery we climbed the Coastal Mountains to the port city of Valparaiso.

The Emiliana Organic Vineyard is a mid-sized vineyard and our hostess was a true “Green”.  She was very excited about their method of growing grapes and overall sustainable farming.  The Emiliana is a leading Chilean wine company and one of the world's foremost producers of certified organic and biodynamic wines.  We spent an hour and a half touring the vines and tasting four different varieties.  The valley sits at 32 degrees south latitude and has mild winters.  It is perfecto for growing the varieties best suited to white wine but they do have a smaller section of much older (80-year-old) vines for producing reds.

Our Hostess Maria

Beautiful Setting - Corkscrew Weeping Willow

Guards of the Fowl

Companion Planting

Organic Vegetables For the Field Workers

#1 and 4 Were Great - Give the Chardonnay a Miss

Maria's Reserve Was the Best.

Chickens and guinea fowl run loose throughout the vineyard eating insects while alpacas are penned until they are needed to protect the fowl from wild dogs and pumas.

We loved two of the four wines.  The sauvignon blanc and the premium reserve red, Coyam were exceptional. 

On a side note, Deborah thought she recognized another couple on the tour.  Her memory proved exceptional as well when it turned out we had met them a few years ago at their winter home in Puerto Escondido, Mexico.  We attended a cocktail party hosted by Don & Judy through their relationship with sister Rita and Mike.  They are from Kenora, Ontario and have been traveling in Argentina since early October.  We will see them again in Mexico next spring.   Small world.

Don & Judy From Kenora

Valparaiso is located seaside about a 1.5 hours drive west of Santiago.  It was a major trading and provisioning port for shipping until 1914 and the opening of the Panama Canal.  Shipping disappeared after 1914 and the city has seen much change since its heyday, not all of it great.  Most residents have moved up the coast to Vina del Mar.  It is still a town worth seeing if only for its many painted murals that cover the walls of the old city.  It was also home to romance poet Pablo Neruda.  I confess to having never heard his name but clearly, I should have in light of his popularity with others.  We toured his home and visited his “office” where he gained inspiration from his views of the city and sea.

That's Pablo

View From Pablo's House

That's Pablo's Tile Floor

That's Pablo's Guest Bathroom Door - Yes Full Display

That's Pablo's Staircase Landing

If you want to see the murals, mansions, shanties and steep cobbled roads you better be prepared to hike.  Fortunately for us, the tour bus dropped us off at the top and we were able to work our way down the narrow streets and allies to the sea below.

There are many little restaurants tucked into the nooks and crannies of the old town.  We did enjoy lunch with a view of the harbour but as usual in Chile, it cost about $70 Canadian for the “okay” meal.  The $8 beer scale is something I am not getting used to.

Its Good but really ... $8.

Due to the tardiness of some self-absorbed individual in our group (not us), we ran late and were late getting back on the bus for Santiago.  We were then stopped in traffic due to an accident and arrived late.  After a quick change of clothes we set out in search of the perfect hotdog, a legitimate favourite dish here in Santiago.

A Great Dog at Hogs

After a very expensive transfer service ride to Cartagena, we have checked into the Patio Ferreira B&B and are ready for our cruise departure from nearby San Antonio.

I have no idea about the Internet strength on board a cruise ship so this blog may go dark for a while.  I trust we are going to have a great time but you may or may not read about it.