Days 2 and 3

 Day 2 was a sea day, a day to explore the ship, get on schedule and generally chill. We sent out a load of laundry to be done; I brought warm weather clothes for the beginning of the trip and pretty much maxed those out. Nice that we get unlimited laundry service and could pack lighter. 

Our entertainment was a comedian, Steve Soelberg who was funny and a storyteller. We enjoyed his show. We went to another club for 60's music. It was amazing how good they sounded with some of the music and how bad with others (they should not have picked Elvis songs; just no).

And it was a day of seeing lots of the sea. We're in the Pacific and running toward the south where the interesting stuff is. 

Day 3 was a port day. We arrive early to Port Montt. We had an excursion planned: "Volcanoes and Lakes" which would take us into the interior. The excursion disembarkation process was horrible. No one new where to go; there was a crush of people outside of the gathering place and I literally stood in line for 20 minutes just to get to where they would look at the ticket. Arch came by way of a different direction and met up with me, because we no longer have paper tickets; it's all in the "app". When our group was called, it was pretty easy to get off the ship and to our bus. Big comfortable motor coach to take us through the day.

Our guide, Andres, was wonderful and kept up a continuing commentary throughout, telling us about Chile. Our bus driver was Daniel and it was amazing how careful he was on these very tight hairpin curves leading up to and down from the volcano. We first passed Llanquihué Lake (pronounced something like Yankee Way) which is a huge lake that we spent much of the day near. We went about halfway up the volcano and glimpsed its top a number of times. These are some pictures of the volcano in the ugly weather of the day. 

The volcano and restaurant:

Arch and friend:

Next stop was a wild cascading river, at a spot called the Petrohué Falls. It was easily accessible and the water coming over the falls was quite clear. Some pics.

Water exiting the falls. I liked how the branch kind of framed the water below.

The wild part of the falls. 

The clear water at the base of the falls. It was a greenish blue color. 

The volcano is in the background, now mostly shrouded by clouds.

And most of the boulders and river basin you see are volcanic rock, much of it basalt. 

We then made a lunch stop at this restaurant. We were greeted with Pisco Sours which were delightful and a lunch of pumpkin soup, salmon and fresh vegetables and panna cotta for dessert. Salmon is a major export of Chile with most of it being farm raised. They start the salmon in lakes and after about a year, transport them by truck to farms in the salt water. We saw a number of these on our excursion the next day. Chile's largest export by far is copper for which it is one of the 3 major producers in the world. Second is their fresh fruits and vegetables along with their wine. Salmon is among the top exports as well. They produce two kinds, Atlantic Salmon (yes they are on the Pacific, but it's still the Atlantic species) and Coho Salmon.

We ended our trip at a small town for some shopping, Puerto Vara. By then it was pouring rain, so we non-shoppers stayed on the bus for the short visit. 

Our guide was excellent, sharing some of the history of Chile, some of the politics, and some personal stories along the way. It was a very full and fun day. 

That night, we discovered that we had booked specialty dining for that night after we had ordered in the main dining room. Ooops. Our waiter, Freddy, cancelled our order and we hightailed it to the steakhouse where we had a lovely steak dinner.