Ever More Water, Ever More Grey

My second day in the south was a largely work orientated one, based in our office in Puerto Montt inhabited entirely by me and Ken. The office itself actually has a really good view over the city and the bay and now I think about it would have been a much better picture than this pipe going into the ocean. But, while this photo is one of the only ones from that day, it does get across the feeling of Puerto Montt as being on the very proper of Chile proper, before the country fractures into a labyrinth of fjords, islands and ice fields. From Puerto Montt you can see the vast bay spreading out in front of you, but looking on a map you suddenly realise that all you can see is a tiny bay within the colossal Reloncavi sound. My daily walk to the office carries me along the coastal path and I'm enjoying staring south and imagining how I'm going to head south in January - there's this converted cargo ship called the Navimag which I hear takes you all the way down through the fjords to Puerto Natales (gateway to Torres del Paine) for a couple of hundred quid. ANYWAY, first day at the office consisted of me taking an inordinately long time to plan a single lesson, demonstrating just how out of practice I am at this. The lesson was taken by Ken anyway, but they were a class of complete beginners, and while Ken can speak nigh fluent Spanish and has no problem with them, they had almost no idea what I was saying, no matter how slowly and carefully I spoke... it was quite a galling moment, but was made up for by going back to Ken and Jenny's place afterwards to see in my birthday with Chilean Wine and American drinking games.