31.01.23

The two and a half hour stopover in Houston consists of two hours of waiting at Customs Border Control, just to be asked the same stupid questions as on the ESTA form. The other half hour I rush through security to the gate, just in time to find out that the departure is delayed by 45 minutes. Great.

The flight itself is as relaxed as the previous one. Two seats for myself, acceptable food provided by United, and a series of one-hour naps. After sunrise, there is a view of the Atacama Desert from the window. Everything goes very quickly at the airport in Santiago de Chile, so the delay has no impact on the third and currently last flight to Puerto Montt. Upon arrival in Puerto Montt, activating a prepaid SIM card for communication on site turns out to be more difficult than expected. In the end, a friendly employee of a small tech store is able to activate the mobile data for me.

The host grandmother at the small Hospedaje Vista del Mar is very nice and talkative. She is the first person whose Spanish I understand without having to ask for clarification every sentence. She probably did it on purpose. Puerto Montt has excellent small fish restaurants in picturesque red wooden houses. Apart from the nice park on the waterfront promenade and the aforementioned Angelmo fish market with its stalls, Puerto Montt is not particularly rich in sights, but it is an important hub for the region with an airport and a large bus terminal.