Puerto Montt, Chile

 For something different we did a “Robinson’s tour” at Puerto Montt. We did not purchase an Oceania package tour, we went ashore and resisted the many vendors who advertise local tours about a quarter the cost of an Oceania tour. We walked to the public bus station. Hugh used an ATM to get some Chilean pesos. It was Sunday so the banks were closed.  Then we took the public bus about 40 KM north of Puerto Montt to Frutillar. The bus ticket cost us $7 CDN each one way. At Frutillar we visited the German museum (Germans settled here in the early 1800s) and had lunch and a beer at a very nice cafe close to the beach. There was dingy and larger sailboats racing and many people enjoying the beach. The sky cleared and the temperature was about 27C. We managed to get the public bus back which stopped outside the cruise ship terminal that saved us the walk back to the public bus station. It was very enjoyable to be able to mix with the Chilean people. They seem to be very kind and courteous to each other. The bus also stopped at many neighbourhoods were we observed some clearly low cost housing but not quite shantytowns. 

At the cafe in Frutillar  with the high speed internet I was able to talk to Penny on FaceTime and Hugh was able to talk to Caroline. As previously mentioned the WiFi on board is pretty slow and unreliable at times. 

To-day is the last day of the cruise. We arrive at San Antonio to-morrow early. We have to figure out how to transport ourselves to Santiago de Chile which is an hour and a half drive from San Antonio.

Hugh has booked an AirBnb for a week and I will stay four four days before starting home on Saturday 11th February. I am likely to be able to post some pictures with the WiFi at the AirBnB.