One day was scheduled to visit the resort town of Puerto Montt before my flight back to Santiago. It is a resort city that hosts cruise ships from around the world and it was recommended by one of Chiloe's residents; "Why did you come here when you could have gone to Puerto Montt?"
To get there from Isle de Chiloe, take the ferry to the mainland and follow Rt 5 (what else?) until the turn-off that goes east to the city. The city wraps around the bay and is beautiful, but didn't capture my heart like Isle de Chiloe. I drove the beach side highway back and forth several times and finally stopped at the sight of my first South American shopping center. Generally I hate shopping centers, but this one sat oceanside and had spectacular views on every floor, floors of food courts, and Disneyland types of entertainment on every floor. I loved it!
A good night's sleep and then off to find the airport, which should have been a 45 minute drive. I found one "airport" sign exiting off Rt 5, but no signs after that. Over 3 hours of driving on every kind of road, stopping anyone I could find in this very remote area, and asking "aeropuerto?" with airplane hand gestures, finally led me to the airport. Even at the entrance to the airport there were no signs, another indicator that tourism is still in its first steps there.
For more pictures of this area, the following link contains photo albums of;
"Island Adventures in Isle de Chiloe, Chile" or
"Puerto Montt and Flight Back to Santiago"
All my South American travel albums can be found at
http://picasaweb.google.com/ramblinme
Enjoy - and Happy Trails!
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