Puerto Montt 6 February 2011
(Latitude: 41 28'South Longitude: 72 55’'West)
(Time -3 hrs GMT)
Our next port of call is Santiago/Valparaiso in Chile on the Pacific Ocean, Tues 6 Feb,
We have been cruising north along the coast of Chile through hundreds of islands, passed fjords and huge white capped mountains and several spectacular glaciers. We pull into Puerto Montt, a south facing town perhaps 100 kms from the Argentine border, the temperature is about 9C (50F) on this mid summer’s morning. The land slopes up to a ridge surrounding the town topped with 14 radio and TV masts. We are tendered in, the sea is choppy and the weather foggy with overcast clouds. Not until the afternoon when the sun breaks through the mist and the temperature reaches 20C (68F) do we find that we are surrounded by white capped mountains, I later learn that these volcanoes are quite active, each year there are a number of tremors.
Very much a frontier town, perhaps 150 years, with simple houses and huge wood piles for heating, graffiti can be seen on every vertical surface. Not a container port but there is a lot of fishing as can be seen at the large fish market with mussels, squid, all kinds of fish and farm salmon.
The latitude of Puerto Montt places it as far south of the equator as NY is north of the equator, curiously, the temperatures rarely go below freezing. Geraniums grow to 6 to 8 ft high; I harvested raspberries from the hedgerows for Susan and I. I see huge blackberries that will be ready in a couple of weeks. The vegetation is very much like that found in Britain with some sub-tropical plants. We were surprised to find a horse chestnut tree complete with conkers.
We take a tour up into the countryside to Frutillar on Lake Llanquihue towards a town called Osorno. A delightful museum consisting of a collection of houses showing how German settlers conducted their lives with wagons; horses’ a blacksmith and a waterwheel to grind their grain.
We return to Puerto Montt and wonder around the town, visiting the fish market and the local craft market, the harbor and we end up at a hole in the wall restaurant where we try the local mussel soup with a half bottle of wine. A little expensive at Pesos8,500 ($17) but outrageous when the girl “adjusts” the exchange rate for a dollar payment of $25. Susan pays in Pesos.
A thoroughly delightful visit as the sun shines and the mist lift to reveal three white capped mountains, Mount Osorno 2,652 m (8,083 Ft, last eruption 1869) and Mount Calbuco 2,003 m (6,105 ft, last eruption 1972) and Mount Puyehue 2,236 m (6,815 ft, last eruption Holocene)
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| Guachos at Rodeo in Puerto Montt |
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| Roy and Susan In Frutillar |
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| Tender pursued by pirates?(ha ha) |
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| Mount Calbuco at Puerto Montt |
An interesting claim to fame for the city is the visit by Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longbaugh in 1903, two American ranch owners from the Cholila Valley in Argentina. They crossed the Andes and came to Puerto Montt to sell their cattle and buy supplies. The two ranchers were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who are much better known for their exploits as bank and train robbers in the USA.
The construction of the railway gave a new impetus to the city’s development throughout the first half of the 20th century, however, disaster struck in May 1960 when Puerto Montt was hit by an earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter Scale and a tsunami that destroyed much of the city and the port, much of the land subsided.
Chile is almost 2,700 miles long and has a coastline of almost exactly 4,000 miles. Chile is 3 time the size of the UK. Puerto Montt (41° 28’) is on a similar latitude to Wellington in NZ or is far away from the equator south as NY is north of the equator. The earliest human inhabited site in North and South America was discovered at nearby Monte Verde and dates to about 10,500 BC
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