Day 3-4 Puerto Montt

I´ve spent the last couple of days in the bustling city of Puerto Montt. The city is built around, as the name suggests, a port. It is very unique though. It looks like a large lake with mountains (and, in this case, an impressive volcano) surrounding it. But its water is ocean blue and it has beautiful waves. If it wasn´t so chilly, I would be tempted to take a dip.

The town is swarming with tourists. I wasn´t as suprised by the amount of tourists, as I was by the lack of Americans. I have only met one couple from the U.S. since I landed in Santiago. It has been nice because I have had plenty of opportunities to practice my Spanish, but a bit frustrating at times. In most of the places I have gone the country or city is very dependant on American tourists. Usually there are throngs of people offering places to stay, places to eat, or tours to go on. That is not so here. I have had to look for these things wherever I go. For the most part I don´t mind. I would rather spend the extra time (and money) for the peace, but it has been difficult finding food.

Today was the first time that I knew what I was getting when I ordered at a restaurant--well kind of. The vocabulary for different items of food is so different from country to country. In other countries the owners have had english menus or spoken a bit of English. Here that is not the case. I order something and hope for the best. Usually I am pleasantly surprised. I have had some interesting meals though--some sort of beans and sauce over spaghetti noodles with an egg sunny side up and a whole sausage on top or a hot dog with guacamole and yellow mayonaise on top.

Today was different though. As I was walking along the port in search of wool mittens, I stumbled upon a fish market that made Pike´s Place look small in comparison. The market was lined with cocineras and I walked into number 93 and ordered Jaiva, the infamous crab. The owner/cook walked out into the market got fresh crab and cooked it. When it arrived, however, I was suprised to see that there was no shell or tools to crack it with. She had done all the work for me, and all that was on my plate was a big pile of crab. Mmmm . . . .