Machu Picchu, Cruise around Cape Horn, and Iguassu Falls
Mike and Judy Henderson
January 31 to March 1, 2017
I'm going to leave the map at the beginning of each page to help you visualize where we are.
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2/12/2017 (Sunday) Today we arrived in Puerto Montt. We can't dock here so we'll have to tender in.
These tenders are also lifeboats and the sign inside the tender says that it will hold 150 people. But if we had to abandon ship, it would probably be in bad weather, the lifeboat would be pitching and bucking and some of the people would be seasick. It would not be a pretty picture.
We boarded a bus for a trip to two villages on Lake Llanquihue - Puerto Varas and Frutillar. The road we took was the Pan-American highway. The Pan-American highway has some branches and one of them links Santiago to Puerto Montt and on to Quellon. A different branch goes through Argentina down to Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world. We'll stop at Ushuaia later in the voyage.
Puerto Varas is a city that was founded by German immigrants and the buildings show a strong German influence.
Judy got a picture of me there.
We didn't stay in Puerto Varas very long - soon we were on the road again to Frutillar, another German settlement.
We first went to the lake and took a picture of the Osorno volcvano. This picture is from the web - it was better than the picture I took.
There was a lyre at the lake and Judy posed in front of it. The community strongly supports the arts and hosts an international classical music festival every summer.
Then we went to a "museum" of the German settlers. It was in the form of a garden with different buildings - a blacksmith shop, a miller's place with a water wheel, etc.
Judy took this picture of me in front of the museum.
These are part of the grounds of the museum. The miller's shop, with the water wheel, is to the right.
We saw hydrangeas and dahlias that grew almost wild in this area. The plants were large and healthy with lots of blooms. Here's a hydrangea - we saw many that were blue and purple, but other colors, also.
And a sample of the dahlia plant.
We was soon time to load up and head back to tender to the ship.
That evening, we had dinner with Carol, Sue and Ken.
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2/13/2017 (Monday) We arrived at Puerto Chacabuco, a small town. There are no roads in to Puerto Chacbuco - everything is by boat. I wonder what life is like here in the winter time.
Again, we had to tender in.
Judy and I took a tour to Parque Aiken del Sur, a nature reserve in the area. The visitor's center is new with many informative displays.
The tour consisted of a 3km walk to a waterfall and then a short walk to a restaurant.
A bit closer look at the path of our walk. The waterfall is at the end of the red dotted line. On return, we walked to the area indicated by the knife and fork on the path indicated by the yellow dotted line. The bus picked us up at the restaurant.
The path was well cleared and generally flat.
Our guide stopped at various points along the way and talked about the plants.
Our friends, Stan and Jacki, were on the tour with us.
Eventually we arrived at the waterfall, called The Old Man's Beard.
Judy and I at the waterfall.
Stan and Jacki at the waterfall.
Then we walked to the restaurant.
The restaurant had a beautiful view.
Dining was group style on long tables and benches.
Here's Judy and me at the restaurant.
Lunch was barbecued lamb, over an open fire. It looked dry and unappetizing and I asked for just vegtables.
There were some local dancers who entertained us with traditional dances.
When lunch was over, we were taken back to the port and tendered to the ship.
We had a "pre birthday" dinner with Ken and Sue that evening in anticipation of my (Mike's) Valentine's Day birthday.
The next two days are "at sea" days.
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2/14/2017 (Tuesday) At sea - but today is my birthday! And no, I won't tell you how old I am.
This evening we had dinner in the Prime 7 restaurant and I had the Alaskan crab legs.
At the end of the dinner, they brought Judy a rose.
And brought a chocolate dessert for me and sang "Happy Birthday". Here I am singing with them.
Tomorrow is an "at sea" day also, and if the weather holds we'll see a glacier and an old shipwreck.