Puerto Montt, Chile - March 12, 2016

We enjoyed a day at sea and were pleased to be heading north into warmer temperatures.  The Star Princess followed a northerly course throughout the day passing capo Raper of Golfo de Penas, archipelago de los Chones, and Guamblin Island.

Chile has one of the world's longest and most dangerous coastlines, more than 4000 km long with at least 5000 rocky islands.  To guard this coast, the Chilean navy operated for many years one of the world's most active and most distinguished lighthouse services, the Chilean Maritime Signaling Service.  This organization seems to have disappeared in a recent reorganization of the Navy, leaving the management of aids to navigation in the hands of the regional naval commands, one in each of the country's 15 regions.

In the early hours of the morning, Star Princess approached Paso Queulin, Banco San Jose and after she approached the Anchorage position, the tender boats were made ready for us.

Puerto Montt is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncavi Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region, 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago.  It spans an area of 1,673 sq km and has a population of 175,000.  Today it was sunny and 12 celsius.

The gateway to Chile's renowned Lake District, here you will marvel at the multitude of snow-capped volcanoes interspersed with charming alpine valleys surrounded by rolling hills.  This region was once a nexus for German immigrants, hence the distinct "German Villages" you can find. The quaint town of Puerto Varas was established by German immigrants over 150 years ago.  It is an excellent showcase of German architecture and food.

In addition to its successful cruise industry, Puerto Montt is currently one of Chile's out rapidly expanding cities thanks to its booming salmon industry.  It got involved with salmon farming during the 1980's and steadily rose to become one of Chile's top five exports.

We tendered ashore and walked the streets in this beautiful town.  There was only one geocache here and thankfully we found it.  Everywhere we looked, the horizon displayed breathtaking volcanic mountains.  Along the shoreline, up to the base of the mountains, there was plush farmland.

The only geocache was here

One of the local markets

Our introduction to Chilean wines

Farm land at the water's edge

We had a beautiful sunset cruise out to sea.  We were looking forward to another "sea day" and then we would arrive at Valparaiso, which would be the finish of the first half of our cruise.  Thankfully, we were booked for 15 more days and little did we realize how fascinating the rest of Chile would be.