December 22, Thursday – Chilean Fjords and Puerto Montt, Chile

We are moored in the middle of the bay at Puerto Montt so today will require tenders to get into port.  Nearest we can figure from the maps we are now officially in the Chilean Fjords.

Harbor at Puerto Montt Chile

Weather today couldn’t make up its mind.  At breakfast it was cloudy and rainy.  An hour and a half later when we got on the tender it was sunny and nearly cloudless.  By the time we got to Emerald Lake for our first stop (also called Todos Los Santos or All Saints Lake) it was starting to cloud over.  By the time we left Puerto Varas it was starting to rain.  By the time we left the bay at Puerto Montt it was clearing and relatively sunny.  Our tour guide, Pilar, said we were very fortunate to have sun.  They don’t get much this far south.

The tour drive took us along Lago Llanquihue (approximately the size of Lake Erie) and into Vicente Perez Rosales National Park where the first stop was Emerald Bay where we took a 45 minute catamaran ride.  

Emerald Lake

We had a brief glimpse of the top and bottom of Osorno Volcano.  The middle of the mountain was ringed by clouds and the top was covered with snow so it was sort of hard to find in the picture below...behind and to the right of the buildings.  

Next stop was the Petrohue Falls.  On the walk we passed a pretty river (stream) that meandered through lots of rocks.

The falls aren't particularly large.  They are smaller than a big falls but larger than normal rapids.  However, they were quite lovely.

There was quite a long narrow chute of water.

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and the main falls.

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It would have been lovelier if Osorno was showing in the distance.

There were some very interesting flowers (weeds?) along the walk to the falls.

We then drove back to Puerto Varas on Lake Llanquihue for lunch and some shopping.  The main part of town is quite small…took us about 5 minutes to drive the two or three blocks.

View of Puerto Varas and Lake from our lunch stop

We beat the worst of the crowds back to the tenders and were on the ship by 4:30.  Time for dinner and the Tina Turner tribute (so so) and then off to bed.