Days 3-5: Finishing in Santiago and boarding the Explorer 🛳
It’s been two days of relocating and getting checked in and the “real trip” started.
We checked out of the AirBNB on Tuesday morning and moved over to Hotel Santiago, a very nice hotel in the midst of renovation. We had a relaxing day there, Adrian tried swimming but the pool was soooo cold.
We had a very very early morning yesterday, getting up at 4:15a for a 6:53a flight to Puerto Montt.
We then had a full day of sightseeing with a tour of the countryside of Puerto Montt and Puerto Vares. This area was populated by Germans in mid-1800’s and they cleared the jungle and have made it an agricultural area. The German museum had memorabilia from that time. Adrian got to use his new lens and photographed some birds in action — the southern lapwing was our favorite. The area is known for its churches with a strong German influence.
Puerto Vares is a resort town for the Chilean people and known as a nice place to live. Definitely quite far from civilization!
We made our way by 3:30 to the ship. Everyone was glad to board and get settled. Feels like home already. We did our safety drill and had a reception cocktail party to meet the crew.
The rest of this week will be traveling through the national parks and glaciers of Chile. Better photos to come!
