Fish Markets of Puerto Montt

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It took just half an hour for the bus ride down the Pan American Highway from Puerto Varas to the port city of Puerto Montt. Our main place of interest here was the fish and craft markets at the far end of the bay.

This meant a long walk from our hotel taking in the sights as we went. Following the main streets we found that this city of around 130,000 inhabitants does have some interesting churches, many department stores and lots of small sidewwalk shops and market stalls.  Christmas was in the air but without all the hype we have to put up with at home.  There were only a few decorations in the shops but there were certainly lots of people around.  Diverting to the waterfront we discovered children's play areas, a train engine 'museum' and a colourful graffitti decorated skating area before we came to the main shipping port.

Where better to have seafood than right where the fish is unloaded, sold and cooked.

The view from our window in an old part of town
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Further on we finally reached the fish markets. It was lunch time so where better to have seafood than right where the fish is unloaded, sold and cooked, sometimes still flipping all over the place. We chose a tiny waterfront café with tables tightly squeezed together covered in plastic cloths. Seating was on benches so there was not a lot of room to move. The lady owner could not have been more welcoming – we had strayed into a local’s café – off the beaten track for tourists. We allowed her to choose for us and were presented with some enormous legs of king crab served on a bed of shredded lettuce along with some boiled yellow potatoes and a couple of slices of peeled fresh tomatoes which tasted like real tomatoes should taste. It was scrumptious, and all for around $12 which included a bottle of beer and a bottle of water – the water is usually more expensive than the beer!

Our fish cafe - a great spot over the harbour
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From our vantage point in the little café we looked out over the fishing boats… and the well fed seals. We watched as fishermen came and went with nets and provisions ready to go out on the next tide. After lunch we explored the markets and saw for ourselves the catch of the morning. Some were being cooked as we watched and the smell was delicious.

Heading back to the centre of town, we went to have a better look at a craft market area made up of crazy buildings - arty and crafty in the extreme. Most of what we saw was best left where it was, not well made and really just kitsch… it certainly would not look good at our place. The Chileans love their carved ducks but most of these were not well made and were made to sit on a shelf with their heads hanging down. Too depressing by far.  We finally came across a really good wood carving shop and found a set of well made ducks with their heads held high - much more positive. We hoped they will still look OK to us when we got them home! They seemed like a good idea at the time.

The seafood, especially these mussels, were very fresh
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From there we took to some back streets through more market stalls - a maze of rabbit warrens. We agreed not to venture in there - we might still be trying to find our way out!  So straight on to find somewhere to satisfy our need for a caffeine shoot. At a small, reasonably clean cafe we ordered some scrumptious raspberry tart - raspberries are really good in Chile. But we had to settle for tea rather than coffee. Coffee was out of the equation. Coffee had been a bit of a hit, but mostly miss, affair for us in Chile. There werejust too many versions and we didn't have enough Spanish to get what we wanted. We had big, small, black, white, strong and/or weak, and every other variation in between. The worst choice of all was cappuccino – just forget that.

One of the wonderful buildings in the craft market
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Too soon it was time to head back to pick up our bags from our hotel which was not in the most salubrious side of town, surrounded by lots of construction work. We were due to be picked up at 4.30pm for our transfer back to the port. There we would join the Norwegian ship MS Nordkapp for a two week odyssee given the tour title of Voyage of Discovery.  We would travel  down the Chilean coast-line visiting villages, fiords and glaciers on our way to Drakes Passage and on to the Antarctic… and that will be the subject of another traveller’s tale, so stay tuned!