South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 7 A Disappointing Day In Punta Arenas

         Our tour today was not scheduled to leave until 10. We took the opportunity to have breakfast in the dining room since we were not under any pressure. We gathered at the tour spot at 9:30 and waited about 40 minutes in line to be seated in the theatre. This was highly unusual as normally they are very efficient at getting people into the right groups. The story was that someone did not put out the seating signs in time. Later we heard from other people that they waited over an hour before their tour left. Part of the problem was that the dock was very long and narrow. Buses had to back in to were the ship was located.

At Freddo's

   We were finally off around 10:30 on our way to the volcano. The tour guide talked for 20 minutes then said “I see everybody? Is sleepy so I will continue later.” This should have been the first clue about the guide. His line was we will talk about that later. We left in warm sunny conditions for or 2 hour 30 minute ride to the stop of the mountains. Our first stop was for lunch at Freddo Fresas. We had a buffet lunch that was “ok”. The best part of the meal was the strawberry smoothies! After the hour, we finished the trip to the rim of the volcano, about 10 kilometres away. The biggest clue as to what was to come was the steady mist at the restaurant.

   

By the time we arrived at the volcano, we were in a steady rain.
As we walked the 600 meters to the rim, hope was eternal. We did have our small rain ponchos with us and they came in very handy. The view from the rim was spectacular – or at least the photo that was on the sign indicated. We could not see a foot over the railing. Needless to say a major disappointment after almost 3 hours on the bus. It was the reason that we picked this tour. We were suppose to get a tour of the small museum with the guide explaining things. He was already directing people back to the bus. We spent a few minutes looking through the very basic display.

Artisan

   Back on the bus for another 90 minutes to arrive at Sarchi, the

The Workshop

painted oxcart store. We had brief stop at an all metal church where the guide said “take a picture out the window”. Yea right, we can get a good one from out seat! At the store – the stop for shopping – we wandered through the workshop and the hand painting area. The craftsmen were quite skilled. One of the things about the workshop  is that it had an old water driving line shaft system. II did not know what was so unusual about that having worked in a shop with that technology years ago. The shop itself was probably one of the better ones that we have been through on these tours. They really had unique items and we could not find one “Made In China” label. Having viewed the carvers and painters, everything looked like it was made locally.

      Another 90 minute bus drive and we arrived back at the ship after 7! The last thing the guide said was “there's my boss, tell him what a great guide I am”. When he asked is everybody had a good time the response was muted! From he Volcano to the ship he did not talk very much. Normally you have information overload. He did explain about coffee, bananas and pineapple growing but generally it was a disappointing trip. Maybe if we had seen the volcano we would have been in better spirits.

We were back with just enough time to clean up and dress for dinner. Only 4 of us were at dinner. We have officially gone down to a table of 6. There were a lot of empty spaces in the dinning room last night and it seems that the there are plenty of spaces every night. I guess set dinning st 8 is becoming less popular. None of the entertainment interested us so we headed back to our room and watched a movie. Time change again tonight.