Days 7-8: October 8-9

We arrived in Puerto Montt at 7 p.m. We got to the city center by bus. It’s cold and cloudy here.

It took a very long time to check into the hotel, and the same problem arose again with paying for the hotel as in Antofagasta.
For some reason, our payment cards don’t work, and if we pay in cash in Chilean pesos, we have to pay an additional 20% tax (as foreigners, we can avoid paying the tax if we pay by card or in dollars).

We paid in dollars somehow, with great difficulty; they examined our perfect bill for a very long time, and searched for change for an eternity....

At nine in the evening, hungry, we went looking for food. All the shops were closed. Most restaurants too.

We went into one restaurant and immediately left; it felt somehow very gloomy there.

Puerto Montt made a rather bad impression. Not very sane-looking people were wandering the streets, and homeless people were lying right on the sidewalks.

Throughout this whole trip, I have never felt as uncomfortable and unsafe anywhere as I did here....

In the end, we accidentally came across McDonald’s. It seemed to be the only food place open at that time.

There were lots of people here and a very long line. Out of desperation, we decided to eat here too.

On October 9, Monday, we woke up in Puerto Montt. It was gloomy outside, with a light drizzle. We went to have breakfast.

After breakfast, we check out of the hotel. We take a taxi to pick up our little car.

We rented a tiny Suzuki S-Presso, made in India. The car weighs 700 kg.

Serzhyk is not thrilled. I hope he gets used to it; we’ll be driving it for a whole month.

We bought food supplies at the supermarket.

And finally, we set off further south along the road that brought us here in the first place.
The road is called Carretera Austral.

They say it is one of the most scenic roads in the world.

Today we arrived in the town of Ornopiren. We checked into a cute little house.

The house was warm, and a wood-burning stove with firewood was waiting for us.