Merry Christmas!

We’re certainly having a fun and unique Christmas vacation, and hope everyone else is, too.

Christmas Eve saw us in port at Puerto Montt, Chile. Roughly as far south of the equator as Boston is north, and a wonderful place to be in December. We spent most of the day white water rafting on the Petrohue River. Class 3-4 rapids, which is about half way between mild ripples and insanely unnavigatable. The Petro is a small biting insect, and “hue” means “way”, so this river is “the way of the mosquito”. We didn’t actually see any petros close enough to tell if they were mosquito, fly or wasp, and didn’t actually get bit or stung, so they were only a minor annoyance to us. There were also monster horse-fly-type things, but they were so slow they never drew blood either. Almost as big as hummingbirds, but not as pretty. Some city-folk guests did not share our dismissiveness.

The Petrohue is a glacial river flowing from the dormant volcano Mt. Osorno through the
picturesque Chilean lake district, and some truly spectacular scenery. These pictures don’t begin to do justice, but you can see the volcano in the background, and the result of Margie’s exuberance.



Back aboard, this evening included a special Christmas dinner and show. Many customers had fun with holiday costumes and/or decorations around the ship. Nothing garish or difficult to pack, but many had stuck one little extra item into their suitcases. Those of you that remember Margie’s engagement ring should recognize the pair of earrings she got today. The other picture is Margie giving a beautiful colorful blanket she crocheted on board to our cabin stewardess Eda. Some of that yarn is imported from Tennessee, the rest from Ecuador - given in Chile to a woman from Zimbabwe.