Sunday 29th January- We arrive in Puerto Montt

Again it was quite bumpy last night but somehow we got through it, the trouble is smaller ships goo to more interesting places thn the very large ones which barge their way through the sea.

I forgot to mention yesterday that Puerto Chacabuco was a place where only the salmon fish farms workers live on their metal houses and so not a tourist place at all.

Opening the curtains at 0800 showed the pouring rain and we felt soryy for the passengers who had booked all sorts of day trips. So as it was raining Jennifer caught up with the washing whilst the ship was quiet.

By 11.30 as we left the ship and took the tender to the dock and we had noticed their were three other ships in town. The dock area was a little run down and as we walked along the streets to the centre of town the pavements began to improve. There was a new bus terminal, in fact not quite finished, and the roads surrounding were more like gravel than tarmac.

Being Sunday pretty much all of the shops were shut, which is a shame, although we did notice the odd shop being open and of course the McDonalds was open.

We were also looking for place to do some internet work and eventually found one open restaurant and we thought we would get a coffee. The barman who spoke pigeon English said we can have

Chicken,Beef, Sausage, Cheese,Chips, Tomatoes etc etc

coffee but the machine is not very good and so we changed to beer. Apparently they also made their own beer and he gave us a sample which was quite good really.

By about 1.30 pm ther place was beginning to fill up and so we deceided to stay for lunch and the menu was the usual Hot Dogs and Burgers plus some local stuff including the Chefs special which he recommended. So we ordered two and he said no and that one dish was enough. Eventually it arrived on a place about 12 x 8 inches and piled at least 8 inches high containing everything you can imagine. The base was made out of chips and covered with cheese and on top was beef and chicken and sausage, gherkins, carrots and others that I cannot remember. I did take a photo and will upload when we get a good interenet connection in Valparaiso on Tuesday.

We wandered back to the ship and Jen did some reading and Noel watched a film and then when getting ready for dinner noticed that the shower thermostat seems not to be working and although there was hot water ion the sink and bath the shower was luke warm.

Its dressy up night tonight so dusted down the tuxedo and went to the Captains goodbye to the passengers evening do for about an hour and had a couple of Kir Royal’s and some tit bits.

Sophisticated Electrical Systems in Chile

We had dinner in our usual place and met a nice American couple who very nice, he had worked for the FBI and he had retried some years ago but had tried cruises on cargo ships which sound actually quite good.

Very few people (men) dress in a dinner suit and most seem to flout the rules

on wearing a suit and tie as an alternative. I bet this would not happen on the P & O where a flogging would and should take place.

We spent the final part of the evening at the show and the singers and dancers were excellent, even the Philippine support band is very good.

Tomorrow we have to collect our passports and start packing our cases in readiness for Tuesday as bags will be collected between 6-11 pm to get them ready for offloading. That’s seems a long time but when you see how many bags people bring for two weeks it’s incredible.

And so to bed with ship bouncing around in the swell, can’t have sex in case you fall off and break something!!