Our current nest in Pto Montt ...

... is the small apartment we're renting in a building called Los Almendros.

The red arrow on the LEFT points to our building. The red arrow in the CENTER points to the low spot on Avenue Padre Harter, where we turn DOWN to the left on Guillermo Gallardo, to descend to the waterfront level of the city. (We're ALWAYS on foot going down to Centro; occasionally we take a collectivo to get back home.) The red arrow on the RIGHT points to the Civil Registry Building, up on the city's top level. Richard has been there several times in the last weeks, hoping to pick up his Chilean Permanent Resident card, which hasn't been ready yet. Now the whole team of government bureaucrats is on strike, in support of the nation-wide strike of Municipal workers. Paciencia.

Walking up Padre Harter, from centro, we see the back side of our building. That gate is security for a quiet, residential community separate from ours. The red arrow in the pic on the right points to our double sliding doors over a concrete window box that serves as our balcony. Each of the bulging corners of the building are other people's apartments. Our neighbor, Yolanda, gave us a bundle of asparagus, fresh from Chillan, just yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon, after Richard left to catch the bus out to the marina, I walked out the front of our building, aiming to cross Padre Harter and climb the hill on Avenida O'Higgins. I wanted to take photos from on high. I'd already done part of my "elevation gain" exercise that day: back-packed the week's laundry downtown to the lavanderia, where I left it with Senora Maria. Got my hair cut, too, by Gabriela, across the hall.

That's Heraldo, my favorite of the four or five conserjes who take care of our building. He pulled out his earbuds when I asked if I could take his pic. He also pointed out to me that there is a mirador up there at the top of the hill ... an overlook for tourist-types like me.

From there on this gorgeous afternoon, let's take a little tour. Looking west-southwest you can see Isla Tenglo across the channel ... on certain days of the week, you would see the Navimag Ferry in the channel itself. Navimag travels south for 5 days through the fjord country of Patagonia.
That grey patch beyond the red roofs that looks like it might be a bridge across to the island is actually the top stories of a high-rise hotel on the beach level. The twin towers of El Mall rise high on the left. Those, too, are on the beach level. The mass of blue roofs in the foreground is the hospital, a block away from O'Higgins and our building

Looking south-southwest, the reddish roofs in the lower left corner are mostly part of a Catholic school complex we walk past almost every day on trips to the Jumbo ... that patch of grey-metal roofing before you see the darker red roofs beyond.

Then looking south southeast, the coastal highway towards Pelluco.

Okay, one more for general orientation. We had almost a full week of rainy days this past one ... you can probably guess from this map view that Puerto Montt is similar to Seattle in it's rain-catching terrain. We hope you're getting a share of sunshine, wherever you are.