Last night our dining room waiter (we ask for same guy every night), George had the chefs prepare one of his favorite Romanian dishes for our appetizer. Can not begin to spell or pronounce the name of it, but it consisted of pollenta then he stirred in sour cream and feta cheese mixing it really well. Boy, was it tasty! Crispy duck was so-so. The entertainer last night was one of the worse comedians we have ever heard. After suffering a half hour, we decided to join the crowd of folks who were walking out on him. Today, he was the joke going around the ship.
We arrived here in Puerto Chacabuco at 10:30am. There is no dock for a ship this large so we are tendering today. Tendering is when they use the ship's life boats to shuttle people from ship to the shore. Before arriving I climbed 101 floors of steps and Rebecca did her treadmill in gym. We grabbed a quick taco before meeting at 11:45 for our "Highlights of Chacabuco & Surroundings" tour. It was 50F and little rain showers passing over but we decided to go. Basically, it consisted of driving up a valley then back the same way. We stopped at the Rio Simpson National Preserve for a half hour but really not much there to see except some local trees and plants. It was raining some so I was back on bus after a few photos. Next we went to a water falls when the tour description said we would be getting off the bus for a photo stop. They would not let us off the bus so took some photos through bus window with rain on it. I was not happy as this is
main reason I decided to go on the tour. Last stop was in the village of Puerto Aysen. It is the largest town in the area with a population of 26,000. We stopped at the main (and only) square but someone forgot to tell the shop owners that a cruise ship was coming today. All the shops were closed for their lunch. Amazing!!!! It was raining now again (seems every time we stopped it started raining) so we did not get off the bus, and besides was only there for 15 minutes. So after 3 hours we were back on the ship. I did get some pictures from the bus but have not looked at them yet to see if they are any good. The valley was very lush and green. The farmers raise cattle here for the local markets. If I was a cow, I would want to live here as they have LOTS of nice green grass and stuff to eat all the time. These cows were so fat and healthy looking! Vegetables were also raised for local use. As I think I said yesterday, the main industry is raising salmon for export to the US. Our chef was buying fresh salmon for dinner tonight. Even our guide admitted that it was kind of depressing to live here as it rains so much and is cloudy a lot also. The mountains along the fjords are from 4000 to 10,000 feet high and extend hundreds of feet below the water. There are thousands of little islands that make up the Chilean fjords. There was snow in the tops of some of the higher mountains so on a sunny day it must be incredibly beautiful here.
Tonight we have "Dinner and a Show" in Signatures (the French) restaurant. Cocktails at 6pm the there is a special menu for dinner. After dinner we go to a special show just for those dining there. The show is "The Flying Fingers of Piano Man Stephan Kane". They are just having this dinner & show for 3 nights and only the full 72 day cruisers are invited to go on one of the nights. About time to go so will sign off. Tomorrow should be an incredible day as we will be viewing a glacier up close and personal. Will try to get photos I took today on blog in the morning.
