02/23/2024 Chacabuco

Today we arrived in Puerto Chacabuco at 11:00 am. There was probably a delay of about an hour when leaving Puerto Montt because the ship's doctor was on a longer assignment, but the captain made up for this time during the night. After breakfast, I tried intermittent fasting, and we were tendered again. With the routine from the day before, none of this bothered us and we ended up hanging out in the terminal area because there was free internet here too! However, no settlement awaited us in front of the harbor area! Only private taxi drivers and minibus owners offered their services. Maybe we should have checked out the tours, but the massive offerings put me off! While looking for a bus stop from which we wanted to go to the next town of Puerto Aysen, a private car drove past us and offered to take us there. Surely the 15,000 Ch$ was completely overpaid, but we drove comfortably and safely! Plus, the ride took almost twenty minutes!

There was a tourist information office in town, but it couldn't get more out of the town than what it really had to offer! Actually almost nothing! So we strolled to the outside cemetery (Cementerio Municipal), which unfortunately was currently being rebuilt along with the access road. A monument (Monumento Padre Ronchi) that we wanted to see on the way was also designated as a construction site. And the shops on the main street had all just closed for lunchtime!? The only thing that was helpful was that the tourism specialist had given us a detailed description of the departure point for the buses back to Puerto Chacabuco. There we waited with the locals for the departure. When it was time to set off, the driver collected the money according to the tariff information in the side window of his bus, so everything was correct!? You think, because he wanted 1000 Ch$ per person from us, even though we had pointed out in our perfect Spanish that we were “adultos mayores”, i.e. pensioners. According to the tariff, they should only pay 500 Ch$. The other passengers also noticed our request and one lady couldn't calm down until she got out about the impudence of the driver, who, in her opinion, had cheated us. After all, it was about 1000 Ch$, so 1€!? When the driver justified himself, I thought I could hear that the 500 only applied to short distances in the city. The long tour to Puerto Chacabuco is just more expensive! Luckily no one knew about our price on the way there! At the next stop we will also take a closer look at the offers at the harbor, because we would definitely have experienced and seen more there!

So after the tender, the on-board inspection and the screening of backpacks and people - my metal knee increases my level of recognition - we got back on board relatively early. So off to the sports equipment and courses. And here I got on a treadmill and started walking at a leisurely pace while Karin followed the instructor's instructions for ???? followed. The slow increases in my walking speed soon meant that I could only stay on the belt with slow jogs. I ran!!! After almost 10 years and almost exactly 1 year after my operation! Certainly my movements weren't aesthetically pleasing and my shoes were shuffling along the belt, but I hadn't done anything running-technically since my last soccer game! So I jogged, looking at the sea, with tears in my eyes! Not very long, but incredibly proud!

At dinner there was the usual fight again with a big bowl of salad and healthy salmon, but I was powerless against the scoops of ice cream with nuts and cream!? No matter, because the bed was waiting for us seven floors below!