We were on a boat. A big boat. Also known as a cruise ship. Sailing around the gorgeous continent of South America – bound for Antarctica… And we had a significant amount of free onboard credit for espresso martini’s on shore excursions.

So we did just that.

We had been at sea for two days and it was time to stretch those sea legs further than the dining decks…

As neither my Mother nor myself had any confidence in our own abilities to drive around Southern Chile ourselves we booked one of the notoriously overpriced and ‘safe’ option of the ‘on-shore excursion’ – using our precious on board credit or course.

The tour was called ‘Petrohue Cascades & the City of Roses’ – it sounded just like a description of most of the passengers after a ‘virus’ infected the ship on Valentines day (but that’s a whole other blog post)…

But infected bowels and romantic seniors aside – the day was set to be a nice outing. The sun was shining, the sky was clear and our fluro green tour group stickers stuck to our shirts with touristy embarrassment pride.

We sat on our comfy air-conditioned bus with our fellow falls and flower tourists – right next to the air-conditioner nazi… Because the man across from us had decided it was his life-long calling to ensure that the bus air-conditioning system was monitored at all times. And I mean ALL times.

He opened up the vent, he closed the vent, he stood up, he sat down, he explained to surrounded passengers how to use the vents. What would we have done without him? (Well, we probably would have enjoyed the bus trip a whole lot more…)

The first stop was to make use of some restrooms – and admire some llama’s, and even take a photo of the Osorno Volcano if we didn’t end up spending the whole restroom break in line for the restroom. (My youthful pace managed to get me a pretty good place in line).

Next up the Petrohue Cascades. We hopped out of the bus and started our walk along the Petrohué River to view the rapids cascading over the hard volcanic rocks… And suddenly I felt 50 years older. Maybe it was the air-conditionisng imbalance or maybe it was my land legs failing me, but I was on the verge of cascading down those falls and had to take a seat (it’s a good thing the walk was short because we managed to admire the view before I was declared ‘man tourist down’).

The next drive seemed to redeem me slightly – the rock of the bus settled my imbalances and the air-conditioning must have been at a happy medium – even the head air-conditioning monitor next door seemed satisfied.

We arrived at ‘The City of Roses’, AKA Puerto Varas – a beautiful floral town that looks over Lake Llanquihue, one of Chile’s largest lakes, where the reflection of the eternal snow that covers the Osorno Volcano which is is mirrored in the clear waters.

We wandered the city – gushing at the cute and quaint architecture adorned in flower boxes. It was a beautiful afternoon which could only be improved by VEGAN ICECREAM. YES, I FOUND VEGAN ICE-CREAM. It was chocolate and I was feeling a-littke-bit-bad still and really-really-needed-a-choccy-vegan-icecream-mummy.

Thanks Mummy.

We may have almost missed our bus, and our fellow falls and roses tourist glared at my vegan ice-creamy as I walked down that air-conditioned aisle but there was no way I was skipping that vegan ice-cream for  anyone. Not even an ice-cream nazi (which apparently didn’t exist on that perfectly air-conditioned bus).

It was a nice day trip from Puerto Montt with some pretty views and relaxing strolls. It was everything you would expect from a organised cruise tour – although painstakingly personalised climate-control was not included on the tour description…

…Which you can read right here.