A couple that was with us is Manchu Pichu stayed at Awasi on the trip and they could not stop raving about it. Said is was one of the most fantastic places ever. Each couple had their own private 4-wheel drive plus driver and could go where ever they wanted. They say...don't miss going to see the Flamingos on the lake..a site not to be believed. I know you will enjoy the Awasi trip!

To catch up with us...we went on a full day excursion in Puerto Montt to see Emerald Lake, the falls, volcanos, etc. We were late arriving due to strong currents at the entrance to the bay where Puerto Montt is located. So we were not on the buses until almost 10:00am. We had an absolutely beautiful weather day. Clear blue skies with only light fluffy clouds on the tops of the highest peaks. No wind and warm temperatures. The only negative...they have some of the biggest flys you will ever see! They were more like dive bombers than insects. Our guide said they come in the summer for about one month and have one week left. They were not biting but very annoying. Kinda wish we had had our Australian face nets with us.

We drove the Emerald Lake and took a boat ride. The boat was almost all enclosed and somewhat warm as well as crowded with two buses. The best thing about the ride was watching the cloud form on top of the volcanco and this "melt" away. The falls were pretty but nothing spectacular.

Then off to lunch at a pretty resort overlooking the big lake (whose name I can't spell). The location was very nice. The food not so good. The tomato soup was fine, but the main course was overcooked salmon, mashed potatoes, and mixed veges. I will never understand why anyone would eat mixed up mushy peas, carrots and green beans! I don't know what the desert was as I could not stand the heat any longer and went back outside to enjoy the scenery.

We stopped at Puerto Vargas on the way back for one hour. A nice town on the lakeshore but we were not particularly interested in shopping. Bought a sweater for our grandson and then had an ice cream to cool off. The guide said it was the hottest day of the year!

Back to the ship about 7:00pm. Since lunch was not until 3:00pm, we had a drink in the Observation lounge and then crashed. We were going to have room service since the special menu was German, but about 8:00PM decided we just were not hungry!

Yesterday, we sailed into the fiords up to Puerto Chacobaco. A beautiful sail in on another totally cloudless day. Terry Breen was doing the commentary as we sailed in and she said she had never seen the mountainsides in this fiord as it had always been socked in with clouds. There was a severe earthquake in the area in 2007 and there are massive slides on some of the mountain sides. The slides caused waves that bounced back and forth doing damage in this fiord. We arrived in Puerto Chacobaco about noon. We did not have a tour planned as one day of a bus is not to be followed by another day on a bus (Fred's rule). So I took the shuttle into Puerto Aynes...didn't even get off. It is a larger town but all the shops were closed until 3:00pm and they were having a power outage. They do grow beautiful flowers. But I guess 260+ days of rain and theses long days of summer are good for flowers. The roses especially were spectacular.

It was a beautiful evening sailing back out of the fiord. We spent sometime in the Horizon lounge watching the sites behind us and then decided that La Veranda was the place for dinner so we could enjoy the scenery. The International menu is still "active". Fred had a very good New York Strip and I had the veal chop done in a Mongolian style barbeque sauce. Both were very good.

Spent the rest of the evening watching the sites until the sun went down. As we sailed back into the Atlantic Ocean, the waves picked up and the fog rolled in. The fog horn sounded all night until about 8:00am this morning. We are scheduled to re-enter the fiords about noon and it looks like the fog is beginning to disappear.

Fred says that today and tomorrow we are on a two day tour...just doing it from the ship!

Jan