South America Blog: Day 5
Tuesday, January 19 (Puerto Montt, Chile)
The ship docked in Puerto Montt, Chile around 9 a.m. Having acted too late to book an excursion through Celebrity before they filled up, we were on our own. In true form, we slept in. I got up at about 1:30 p.m., and Shelley awoke to the sure-fire "tickle alarm" at 2:30 p.m.
By the time we took the tender boat to the shore, we only had about 3 hours to explore the town before we needed to be back on the ship. We elected to keep it simple and proceed on foot, walking along the shoreline towards the downtown area. For the first part of the trek, we walked through bustling streets abounding with all manner of small vendors. Eventually, it gave way to more modern stores as we approached the downtown area.
On the way back, mistakenly thinking that this was our last Chilean port, I encouraged Shelley to spend the remainder of our Chilean pesos. We were able to acquire a mini treasure trove of authentic local knickknacks. We even had the presence of mind to snap a few pictures of us in front of the local biblioteca for Craig, and got a shot of a bust of oddly-named Chilean liberator Bernardo O'Higgins.
Soon after arriving back at the boat, we realized that our next port, Punta Arenas, is in fact in Chile. However, we have an excursion booked there, so we should be able to get by with little or no local currency.
After dinner, we went to one of the lounges for a karaoke session. Shelley must have sung something like 5 or 6 songs, some by herself, and some with accompaniment. I sung the Barenaked Ladies' If I Had $1,000,000 with her, and R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion solo. We should have a few more opportunities to test our voices during the cruise. The song selection is pretty sparse, so we might run out of songs to sing by the end of the cruise! Betty Schulman is quite the hardcore karaoke afficionado. She brought a couple of karaoke CDs of her own, and ended up using them She prefers songs from musicals, and even incorporated some moves into her performance.