Th Skorpios Cruise Began in Puerto Montt, Chile
We made our way through Argentina and Chile's Lake District by a variety of transportation. From Puella, a motor launch across Lago Todo Los Santos to Petrohue where we boarded a bus for a two-hour ride along Lago Llanquihue to Puerto Montt for the evening. The Lake District is beautiful and can easily be seen independently the same way we did it.
In Puerto Montt, we transferred to the dock for embarkation. Unlike most cruise ships that depart in the late afternoon or evening, the Skorpios was scheduled to leave in the early morning. Aboard ship and shown to our very basic stateroom right by the crew's quarters, we made two very important discoveries:
- There were quite a few empty cabins and the purser was busily moving passengers around into better cabins at no extra charge. By the time we discovered this, the great cabins were gone but at least we were moved away from the crew's quarters; and
- No one spoke English!
It never entered our minds that remedial Spanish, Buenos Dias, si, nada, arriba, donde esta, mas o menos (more or less), hola, and adios wasn't going to hack it on this voyage. It's not that we think the entire world speaks English but this was a cruise...usually people on cruises (staff, etc.) speak English... That's where our thoughts were coming from. Of course, totally incorrect... Our lifesavers were Isobel and Corrine who came to the rescue. Isobel was the Captain's daughter. Corrine, originally from Chicago (can you believe it), had married a Peruvian and was traveling with Augusto and their two children. Other than a few other passengers whose English was similar to our Spanish, it could have been "pretty ugly" for us. The Captain immediately placed us at his table with Isobel so we could participate in discussions and understand whatever was happening.
Skorpios I was a very small, intimate little ship and, to the best of my recollection, there were only 20-30 passengers on this voyage. Weighing anchor, the Skorpios departed within sight of Cabulco and the Archipelago of Chiloe.
The first night was expected to be a rough crossing. The Ship's Doctor came around to every stateroom and dispensed huge, heavy-duty sleeping pills! Picture that happening on another cruise... We gulped them down and were immediately out like a light!
