Antarctic Cruise: Puerto Montt (2.16)

It is always a challenge, choosing shore excursions.  We docked at Puerto Montt, the northernmost port for Patagonia, on February 16, 2024.  I randomly chose a trip through a national park to see a rare tree, with a stop afterwards at a museum housing vintage artifacts from German settlers from the late 1800s.  It turned out to be a fascinating day.

The national park protected alerce trees, which are similar to sequoias in that they grow very tall, very slowly, and for thousands of years.  

Our guide pointed out a tall tree, which he said was 6000 years old.

We walked on a boardwalk through the forest, looking at the tall trees and the moss-covered undergrowth.

Next stop was the German colonization museum in Frutillar, where many Germans settled.  Chile decided, in the late 1800s, that it needed its southern frontier colonized, and it advertised in Germany for settlers.  Many of the immigrants who arrived had no idea that the Patagonian wilderness would require them to rip out whole forests before being able to farm.

I used to think that the people of South America were primarily Indian (Indigenous) or a mixture of Indian and Spanish.  That might be true of Mexico, but Chile, Argentina, and Brazil have large groups of German, Italian, Croatian, and even Welsh settlers.

The German colonization museum included clothing, books, equipment, and other personal effects from the many Germans colonizing the area in the late 1800s.

There was even a variation on a player piano which played beautiful European songs from "records" that could be rotated.

The cafe at the museum sold German kuchen.

Our last stop on the tour was Puerto Vargas, a resort city on a lack.  Bariloche, just across the border in Argentina, is the heart of the Argentinian Lake District.  There were fancy hotels surrounding the lake and upscale craft shops. There was also a huge Native statue decorating the lake front.

Sometimes the ship can pull up to the dock at a port, and sometimes we have to get to the port by "tender", or small boats that dart from ship to shore.  As I entered this little covered boat, I felt like I was crawling into one of the Jaredite boats, shaped like dishes, that crossed the Pacific, as described in the Book of Mormon!