Transiting the Darwin Channel

 

We make an early start to the day, with our usual light breakfast, as our tour this morning has a reporting time of 8:30am. There is a queue to get into the theatre where the bus allocation is being made. We  manage to skip the line by using a different entrance, which probably only adds to the chaos caused by too many people arriving early - but people arrive early (left) because they know the system is a shambles. We get our stickers for Bus 19 then take the tender to today's port: Puerto Montt, Chile

The tour is entitled "Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas & Frutillar Highlights", and the first stop is at Frutillar - which means Strawberries. Our destination is an open air museum that features buildings relating to the German settlement that established the town in the mid-19th-Century

The interesting buildings are spread throughout a scenic setting with some lovely flowers. With only an hour in Frutillar, we briefly explore the buildings before walking to the nearby lake, with its unusual pier

On the opposite  side of the lake is a volcano, Osorno. This volcano has a similarly conical shape to Mount Fiji, but due to cloud only the base of the mountain is visible. Later, we get a glimpse of the snow-covered peak, but then most of the volcano is hidden.

We have another hour at Puerto Varas (the City of Roses") - an attractive lakeside town (above) but without any specific feature to view. Our final stop returns us to Puerto Montt - nothing appears to be of interest here, so we board the ship for our usual salad and desserts

After three laps of Deck 3, we have only a short time to relax before our 5:30pm dinner reservation in the Canaletto restaurant. We have a lovely meal, sitting by the window, served by our favourite Thai waitress, Kwanta.

 

Jeanette has grilled tiger shrimp; seared Mediterranean sea bass; tiramisu.

 

David's choice is burrata; sea bass; affogato.

 

Two Americans from Georgia provide us with an interesting description of a trip they made to Normandy for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.

 

Tomorrow is a day at sea as we make our way north following the coast of Chile