A day in Puerto Montt, Chile

Solid ground! Yay!

Things have been rocking and rolling here on the Emerald Princess. And we haven’t even gotten to Cape Horn yet. Yikes! We have plenty of Dramamine…and both Rob and I respond well to it…so I’m not worried. We shall leave all the barf bag stations now scattered around the ship for other passengers. But wow, all this motion is a bit disorienting.

We’re on the sea again today after spending yesterday in our first port. It was a full, beautiful, beverage-fueled day. Vacations are fun!

Puerto Montt is about 800 miles south of Santiago still on the west coast of South America. If you’ve ever heard of it, it’s probably because of a massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the small coastal town in 2010 (or an even bigger earthquake in 1960). There aren’t any remnants of those disasters today other than various monuments and infrastructure various countries donated to the recovery efforts.

As we will do in each port, Rob and I spent the day with a tour group. This always involves little color-coded numbered stickers (Blue 7 yesterday), tour buses, and parting applause for the drivers.

We didn’t get to explore Puerto Montt itself. By the time we were dropped off at the port terminal at the end of our tour, it was too late to walk into town. It looked very quaint, though, with a slight hilly rise to the north and two distinctive snowcapped volcanoes to the east.

That’s one thing I’ve noticed about the Andes mountain range: it is full of snowy, jagged peaks and volcanoes. And all mostly in a straight line which makes this native Californian a little twitchy with knowledge that we are sidling up against some major fault lines.

We had a gorgeous day, allowing many vistas and exponentially more photos of the two volcanoes. We were told it’s not typical to see the lively mountains in such unclouded glory.

The main volcano – called Orsono – is said to look almost exactly like Mount Fuji in Japan. I can’t verify this having never seen Mount Fuji in person. But I can say Orsono was tall and triangular and pointy just like an unerupted volcano should be.

The other volcano – called Calbuco – reminded me of Mount St. Helens at home. Its symmetry was most recently blown apart in 2015 (also in 1972) so it more of a jaggedy trapezoid. Still very pretty, though. And rather photogenic once I figured out some filters.

Our first stop of the day was a lakeside town called Puerto Varas, just about 30 miles outside of Puerto Montt. Puerto Varas was originally settled by Germans so there is a bit of Bavarian influence in the architecture. Although pretty, it seemed weird to have gone to all this trouble to visit Chile and then be asked to appreciate how German it looks.

We were given about 90 minutes free time to wander around. Rob and I headed straight for the lake so we could enjoy the volcanic views and try to capture them in pixels. We then spent the next 75 minutes enjoying the sun, laughing at hearing John Denver songs being played on the pan flute in the town square, and not buying any knitted handicrafts.

My favorite experience in Puerto Varas was discovering a small chocolate shop far enough off the tourist track that we had to play charades to complete my purchase. Dedicated to trying new and different things while on vacation, I nabbed three fancy chocolates in flavors I had never seen before. And trust me, I know my way around fancy chocolates.

I ate the “Pisco Sour Semibitter” one as soon as we got on the bus. Having not yet experienced a Pisco Sour adult beverage, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was a wish I had purchased more than one of these semibitter treats. It tasted sort of like a chocolate-covered margarita. And that is a very good thing, it turns out.

I waited until much later in the afternoon to sample my second chocolate: the “Platano Dulce de Leche” or “Sweet milk banana” as translated on the sign. I was honestly a little wary of this one; artificial banana flavoring can be pretty awful. But I had never seen banana as a truffle flavor so I added it to my bag.

OMG. I told Rob it was a sign of how much I truly love him that I let him have the tiniest bite of my platano dulce de leche. It was incredible. It borders on the best piece of chocolate I have ever had, which is saying something.

There was no artificial banana anywhere near this piece of chocolate heaven. Instead, it tasted like a chocolate coat snuggling real banana chunks. Banana chunks like you would find in banana bread batter. In fact, that is my best description of this delight: think of moist banana bread with chocolate chips and you are in the neighborhood. I’ve decided it’s probably best that I can’t find banana chocolate truffles in my neighborhood because I don’t think I can exercise enough to counter the pounds I would consume and then lug around.

In the spirit of thorough reporting, I just sampled my third chocolate acquisition: the “Trufa de amapola” or “Poppy truffle.” So very crunchy and with so much texture I’m not sure there was much taste, although “poppy seed cake” might be the best approximation. I suspect I will be working on getting the poppy seeds out of my teeth the rest of the cruise. I’m glad I tried it but I won’t miss it.

Back on the tour bus, we headed to our primary destination for the day: a fundo olguita…a Chilean farm with cowboys and horsies and dancers and food and beverage. Yee haw!

Although the place was entirely set up for tourists, it was nonetheless lovely and felt authentic enough to give the spirit of the cultural experience.

The farm was run by a reportedly very wealthy family and most of the people involved in running the show were family members (this might be how they stay wealthy). They were all very proud of their heritage and culture. Their pride honestly made the experience even more fun.

We learned that Chilean cowboys are called huasos (wah-so). Ours ranged from age 4 to about 35. They smiled when necessary but otherwise were very serious and stoic. Rob and I instantly had a favorite when he was introduced as Leopold. Being Bugs Bunny at the Opera fans, every time Leopold was announced on his stately Chilean horse, Rob and I looked at each other and whispered with excitement, “LEOPOLD! LEOPOLD!”

It’s clearly a good thing Rob and I found each other.

The huasos gave some Chilean rodeo demonstrations, the most impressive of which was making the horses walk and run sideways. Yes, sideways.

I know just enough about horsemanship from all my expert Equestrian Fair Court stalking to understand how inane an endeavor this should be for a horse. And yet, over and over, these horses ran sideways around the arena, demonstrating how Chileans use two horses and huasos to capture cows. One horse runs parallel to the wayward bovine; the other runs perpendicular to trap it and slow it down. It was quite different than anything I’ve ever seen at an American rodeo.

It seemed to require intensely honed skill from both the rider and the horse. I could have watched it for several hours instead of just 15 minutes.

In between horse demonstrations, we got to see three young couples dance the traditional Chilean folklore dance called “cueca.” “Cueca” sounds enough like “quaker” with a heavy accent that I kept wondering why Quakers dance so much down here but so little at home. Accents aside, the Chilean cueca involved stomping feet, clapping hands, and waving handkerchiefs around in the air.

It was a very flirtatious dance, with shy come-hither smiles, seductive eyes that looked up to the paramour while chins were tucked, and lips that inched their ways towards each other only to have those chaperone handkerchiefs interrupt the shenanigans.

It was performed with such great skill, I wondered if the dance couples were also romantic couples in real life. But then I witnessed all the smiles and alluring eyes dissolve into poker faces as soon as the music stopped. It was all for show after all.

I was quite relieved the love attraction was all a performance because the oldest of the three couples looked to be high schoolers. The other two couples were probably 10 years old at best. Watching 5th graders try to seduce each other with handkerchiefs was just a touch creepy.

Perhaps so that we wouldn’t notice that creepiness, the hosts kept us plied with beverage. We started off with a welcome Chilean wine (ok not great – tasted watered down for the masses), then a Pisco Sour (a sweet margarita that even Rob liked; we shall be having more), then more Chilean wine (I quite enjoyed the Sauvignon Blanc but not as much as my tablemate from Croatia enjoyed the Cabernet Sauvignon), then a chamomile tea liqueur that was really odd but held its promise of keeping me quite relaxed on the bus ride back to port.

We also got to sample some chewy, overcooked Chilean beef (eh); a surprisingly tasty Chilean potato (it looked and tasted similar to a Yukon Gold); and some delicious Chilean tomatoes. Can’t say I’m sad that I get a second summer for a few weeks down here!

Today is another At Sea day. The waves are officially “moderate” at about 8 feet but it definitely feels more sway-y and dippy than the “rough” seas a couple of days ago. While eating a late breakfast, we watched hundreds of small, black dolphins playing and jumping in the waves near the ship. I’ll have to Google them when I have free Wi-Fi. Nevertheless, the unidentified aquatic life was very fun to watch.

Tomorrow is “scenic cruising” to see a glacier. The forecast says there might be clouds and some rain. I’m guessing most passengers won’t mind the weather as along as the water is calm.

Bring on the Dramamine!