DAY 27-PUERTO MONTT, CHILE

   
Historical/Background Info:
        Originally, the area where Puerto Montt is now was covered by thick forest.  It began to be populated in 1853 by a government sponsored immigration of Germans to the area.  Chile’s Lake District is a place of powerful beauty and definitely one of the most gorgeous places on earth.  There are 12 large glacially carved lakes and six volcanoes in this region of Chile.  Just across the Chile/Argentine border is Barrriloche, a popular tourist destination with great skiing in winter months.  The port at Puerto Montt is the main sea port at the lower end of Chile’s western continental land.  If you look at a map of Chile you will see that it is also the gateway to the Chiloe Archipelago (a long string of hundreds of islands in Chile’s inland Sea of Chiloe).  The population here is 175,000 and fastest growing city in Chile.
        The city’s economy is based on agriculture, cattle, and forestry on the surrounding islands, and fishing and salmon aquaculture in the fjords and Pacific Ocean.  By salmon aquaculture I mean they have salmon farms where they raise salmon under controlled conditions.  Puerto Montt is know as the "Salmon Capital of Chile".  Chile is the second largest salmon producer in the world behind Norway.  They also have farms for raising tilapia, catfish, sea bass, and bream.  The hatcheries, fisheries, and packing plants are mostly located south of Puerto Montt.  Fresh salmon and other fish are flown out daily and frozen salmon is shipped by ocean all over the world.  Chances are you have eaten a lot of salmon, and other fish I have mentioned, from this area of Chile.  My favorite is the Chilean sea bass.  The international airport in Santiago is a two hour flight from here.  I used to fly the Boeing 777 from Dallas to Santiago and we carried thousands of pounds fresh fish back every night to Dallas.
        The climate here is a wet one with heavy rainfall throughout the year.  Temperatures are consistently cool but frosts are rare.  The average high temperatures are mid 50’s to mid 60’s.
 In 2012 when we were here it was a rainy, windy, and cold day.
What We Did Today:
        Our tour today was suppose to be a 7 1/2 one titled, "Osorno Volcano, Petrohue Falls, and Puerto Vargas".  We did this same excursion back in 2012.  It was rainy back then and is forecast to start raining after noon again.  Due to the clouds we could not see the Osomo Volcano then so figure we won't see it tomorrow either.  So I changed our excursion to "Petrohue Falls and Puerto Vargas". It is only 4 1/2 hours and departs at 9:40.

So here is a photo that I got off the internet of Osorno Volcano.  It is 8700 feet high and last erupted in 1858.

         On our arrival this morning at 8:00 I got these two photos of the Osorno Volcano.

      I was very lucky to get a good photo of Osorno as it clouded over not long after this.

        After tendering ashore we boarded a bus and headed up the Panamerican Highway.  The Panamerican Highway starts in Alaska and this is where it ends.  Of course the Chileans say it starts here and ends in Alaska!
        There is a very big German influence here even today, which we observed during our tour today. Our first stop was at a National Park to view the "Petrohue Falls".  A small river running down out of the mountains has some interesting cascades (I would not call them water falls) over volcanic rock. From here we went back on the same route along lake LLANQUIHUE, the second largest lake in Chile at nearly 350 square miles.  Our next stop was at the lake resort town of Puerto Vargas.  We had 45 minutes of free time here to shop or just walk around.  Then we headed back to Puerto Montt and our ship.  It was about 3:00 pm when we got back to our suite.  Got back just in time as it is now raining lightly.  We had a bite for lunch before I began downloading my photos and writing.  As I have done the past couple of days I am going to add the link so you can view today's photos.

Click on the link below to view the photos.  Copy and paste it on your browser.

https://goo.gl/photos/ELKUMisUnwrTY6pa9

                           Third time was a charm!  This veal parmesan was perfect.

                               They called this "Grandma's Lemon Pie".  It sure was good!!!!

Going into the theater to watch the Super Bowl being televised on big screen.  We left at half time to finish watching game on our suite tv.  Glad Broncos won!!

We will be sailing again at 6:00 pm for our next port, Puerto Chacabuco.  I will be going to the theater at 5:45 to listen to the lecture by Retired Colonel Stephen Bauer.  He was a military social aide serving in the White House for five Presidents.  Today's lecture is about President Richard Nixon.  After dinner at 9:30, we will be going to the production show, "Film Flashback" featuring the Jean Ann Ryan singers and dancers.  Yes, we saw this show last segment but definitely want to see it again.