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| Osorno volcano, Chile |
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| Llamas on the balcony! |
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| Emerald Lake, Chile |
At our first Captain’s Welcome Aboard party shortly after we left Southampton the captain told us he was in charge of the ship but the passengers were in charge of the weather! Well, I reckon we’ve all done a great job so far!
The alarm went off at 0545 as we had to assemble at 0645 for our trip to the Chilean Lake District where we were to visit the Petrohue Falls and the Esmeralda Lake. A cup of tea and a biscuit had to suffice as breakfast, but as we boarded the tender for our journey to the shore, the weather was decidedly overcast and cool.
We drove almost 2 hours to our first destination, the lake; about an hour into the journey the skies cleared and we had our first view of the Osorno volcano, peeping out from cloud cover below it. I have included a photo of this volcano because it looks like Mount Fuji.
We took the catamaran for a 45-minute trip around the ‘emerald’ lake, which really is a beautiful green colour, then drove a short distance to the Petrohue River Falls, again a definite photographic opportunity.
After we drove to a park area (like a holiday park in the UK but no caravans, just a handful of cabanas, where we were served a delicious 3-course lunch - a pisco sour and empanadas to start, soup, salmon (now farmed in the area) and something similar to cake. Naturally the red and white wine flowed freely!
The setting was perfect, with wooden cabanas dotted around the park and a herd of llamas wandering loose! They like nothing better than to trot up onto the decks of the cabanas and look through the windows, presumably for food. St Minver was never like this!
Finally boarding the coach for our trip back to the ship, we stopped at Puerto Varas, known as the City of Roses. A lovely little place, but as we had only half an hour here, we made our way to the supermarket to buy a couple of bottles of Pisco Sour! For those of you reading this who know your cocktails apparently it is very similar to a Margarita. It isn’t particularly alcoholic at 15% but it does depend on how many you have and the size of the glass!!
We got back onto the ship at 1630 and relaxed on the balcony in the sun for an hour before getting ready for dinner. A day at sea tomorrow, then Valparaiso on Tuesday. We have now reached the end of the second leg of the voyage.
Speakers on the voyage have been particularly diverse: apart from the port lectures for some 33 ports, we have had talks on jewellery, lifeboats, deep sea diving for Glenn Miller’s plane, Johnny Kingdom on Exmoor wildlife, several wine talks and tastings from Brazil to Chile, Julie Peasegood talking about her television career and Anthea Guthrie on gardening, especially planning a garden for Chelsea.
Besides the onboard Headliners Theatre Company who have been excellent with their interpretation of many London shows, we have had Pam Ayres, Dave Kristian, the Merseybeats, Don Reid, comedian Kenny Smiles, Tracey Quinn, Bonnie Langford, Hanna Starosta, a Russian violinist, comedians Lee Wilson, Mel Mellers, TV talent show winner Anthony Adams as Frank Sinatra and tonight Joe Longthorne. Most of the comedians are from the Granada TV programme, “The Comedians”. I appreciate that most of you reading this will not know many – if any – of the names above, but for the ‘older’ passengers, we remember all of them!
We now wait to know who will entertain us on the third leg of our voyage.
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