Puerto Montt

Today we are ported in Puerto Montt, Chile. Since our last post, Luke and I have had 2 sea days and yesterday we ported in Puerto Chacabuco. In every port, the cruiseline plans "excursions", different tours and adventures and such. Most of these cost $90 to $300, so we sort of planned on limiting how many we would do to like two or three. In Ushuaia, we did a hike and today went river rafting. We did nothing in Chacabuco, which was a mistake because it was a really small city with just a few thousand people. Instead we walked around the place for an hour, then came back to the ship and did the same thing we do everyday...nothing.

The whitewater rafting today was incredible. The weather here is pretty foggy with light rain, and the terrain is amazing. It sort of looks like Jurassic Park minus the dinosaurs. We have a ton of great photos that we'll post right after this (because the computer i´m using doesnt have an opening disc drive). We got off the ship around 9:30 and took a bus to this river, roughly 1 and a half hours away. We got dressed in all the gear, then formed teams. All in all, there were about 22 people from the cruise there. The rest of the boat is doing some wuss bus tours and whatnot. Our foursome had to split up; myself, Luke, and our bloody Australian mates Mike and Anna. Luke and Mike went in a boat with a Canadian gang, and Anna and I got on a boat with this family from New Jersey. The rapids were not too crazy, but it was so much fun. The water was actually fairly warm, and at one point the people in our boat jumped out and we just floated around. Afterwards, we dried off, had some snacks and a glass of Pisco, the Chilean alcohol.

Since our last post, not too much has happened. I'm trying to recall specifics. A few nights ago, the boat hosted a "white hot party", basically a party at the disco where you are supposed to wear as much white as you can. At first, it was a little lame because the age range was huge, the music was not for us, and it was awkward because the dance floor is small and maybe 40 or 50 people were dancing, and like 300 just sitting and watching...eventually I grabbed Jamie and we got out to dance and the other blokes followed. It turned out to be a lot of fun, because we finally met people about our age that were non-english speaking, for the most part. We met a bunch of people from Venezuela, more Brazilians, some Argentines, etc, and were dancing til about 3:30 or so then hung out at the sports bar and just chatted.

Last night we got a small group to go out to dinner with us...the two of us, our newleywed buddies Grant and Fang, Mike, and Jamie. We spent like 3 hours eating and talking in the restaurant. Later, we went up to the bar for some extreme King's Cup which Fang turned into a pretty loud game, making it more fun. After a few drinks we went to the disco and socialized a little, and eventually went back to the sports bar when it closed with more or the less the same gang of Venezuelans we met at the white hot party.

The other night Luke and I went to the sushi place for dinner. To be honest, we have been a little cautious about just going out to dinner the two of us, because it doesn't help us look like heteros. Anyway, sushi was awesome because we sat at the bar and chatted it up with the chefs who were totally ridiculous. They gave us all of the awesome lowdown about the crew: how crew romances work, how expensive hookers on shore are, and that through the grapevine, somebody saw the two crazy Russian looking guys making out, which is probably a lie but I was laughing so hard just that these guys would even discuss that with us.

Everything in between has been pretty quiet. I have been reading a lot, Luke has been napping a lot, and both of us have been working out and running probably too much. The weather has been for the most part pretty cold, and only one day on the cruise so far has the weather been good enough to sit outside. Luke's burns are recovering nicely, but honestly he got burned pretty good.

Again, we're rushed with time so if I forgot anything we'll update in Valparaiso. Thanks for being better posters!

By the way, Phil...we can talk about the South American women some other time.