December 24, Saturday – Puerto Chacabuco, Chile

The weather today is still a bit overcast but, again, no real rain.  Our bus ride took us inland through the countryside around Chacabuco...

 and along the Aysen River...

ending up in the Simpson River National Reserve...

where we stopped to see the Simpson Falls.

We later stopped at the park's visitors center to walk down to the river.

Next stop was a viewpoint overlooking the the city of Coyhaique set in a large valley in Northern Patagonia.  It is on the east side of the Andes and so is much drier than the rainforest we drove through earlier.

There were a lot of flowers along the roadside including wild roses...

and areas covered with flowering yellow scotch broom and purple lupine...very dramatic coloring and very pretty.

Today the tour also included a “snack” consisting of fruit, cookies, empanadas (meat and cheese), kabobs, cake and the ubiquitous Pesco Sours.  There was enough to qualify as lunch. 

At our lunch stop

On the way back we started getting light rain.  The guides yesterday and today both said that this area of Chile averages 370 days of rain a year.  So far we’ve done pretty good with the rain in that it seems to wait until we are on our way back to the ship.

In the evening we enjoyed the regular show and then a lovely holiday show put on by the ship’s crew.  There was a general crew choir, songs by the entertainers, a Filipino Choir and an Indonesian Choir.  The Indonesian Choir was particularly good and they did a very good job singing harmony.