Chilean Patagonia/Lake Region: Bavarian Wonderland, Bourdain-Approved Meal & Horse Jerky

Puerto Montt, Chile: foggy & gritty port city with barking dogs, scallop-shingled houses with chimneys filling the air with the smell of burning wood. It's hard to believe I was just in a dusty town in the high desert. That's what's amazing about Chile: it has amazingly varied landscapes because it stretches halfway South America down to the frozen tip of the continent.

Also visited the nearby more picturesque Germanic villages of Puerto Varas & Fruitillar.

Bottom line: Bavaria by the bay, quaint affluent Teutonic villages by the lake which borders Argentina, populated by descendants of mid-19c German settlers in a place which reminded them of home. I couldn't wrap my head around how German the place was. Even the dogs have blue eyes. Maybe such places no longer even exist in Germany.

Tonight we actually sail through the Patagonian fjords for four days. Thirty travelers on a transport ferry which can accommodate two-hundred.