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Puerto Montt - 16th April 2009
After a non-remarkable bus ride, we arrive in a grotty bus station in a grotty port town... welcome to Puerto Montt!
Undeterred, we tramp around for half an hour until we find a hostel, the best and cheapest choice being one with a bright green bathroom, complete with a bright blue bathroom suite, plus numerous frilly pillows on the bed. We dump our stuff and head off (via a trucker cafe, which we stumble on by mistake, but which it turns out do really good steak sandwiches) towards the Navimag office, (www.navimag.cl) to see if we can get tickets for the boat scheduled to leave next week.
However, we find out from the lovely ticket lady that the schedules have now changed, and that the ship is indeed scheduled to sail tomorrow early afternoon. We take about a nano second to check our busy schedules, before whipping our our credit cards and signing up there and then. I actually do a little dance of excitement when we step outside, and I think the ticket lady sees. Dave pretends not to.
Next stop is one of the many huge supermarkets in this port town for some supplies. Weighed down with cheese empanadas, the Chilean version of Pringles, bottles of water and two cartons of El Gato (´the cat´) wine, we drag our haul back to the hostel, and retire for the evening. Although not before Dave has endured, to my amusement, a lengthy guided tour around the kitchen by our landlady, in full spanish, for no apparent reason. His new knowledge does come in handy later on though, as he manages to locate some plates quick smart for our evening meal of aforementioned empanadas, microwaved.
The following morning, even the powercut that prevents a hot shower doesn't get us down, as we skip down to the Navimag office to check in. After that, we have nothing to do but wait, so we walk to a tiny little roadside cafe for a completo - this consists of a hot dog in a hot dog roll, a smidgen of tomato sauce and avocado, and about one cubic metre of mayonnaise sculpted onto the top of it with a pallet knife. We remove as much of the mayo as we dare, trying not to hurt the elderly proprietress´feelings, and it turns out to be quite tasty.
By early afternoon, it's time to screw on our sea legs and to hop back on over to the Navimag office - we´re ready to sail...
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