Chile, Peru Islets Are Their Goal

“Just like Antarctica without ice.”

That’s what Society Expeditions forecasts for the voyage of its 96-passenger Society Explorer, scheduled to leave Puerto Montt, Chile next March 9 to explore several islands offshore from both Chile and Peru.

They are home to a variety of wildlife ranging from South American sea lions to sea birds in their tens of thousands, including pelicans, penguins, terns and Peruvian boobies.

Puerto Montt is 650 miles south of Chile’s capital of Santiago. From there the coast begins to break up into archipelagoes reaching down toward Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan.

Puerto Montt is also the heart of Chile’s “Little Bavaria.” Bavarian Catholics settled there in the middle of the last century. Today there are 15,000 people of German descent in the town of 150,000, plus another 100,000 in the surrounding province.

They are a strong presence in the business, professional, artistic and farming communities. Their roots help sustain a Bavarian zest for hiking, sailing and an active outdoor life.

In Puerto Montt, Cafe Kiel, Doggenweiler’s drugstore and the bronze figures of the first German immigrant family standing in a park all are testimony to the area’s German heritage. We even found something that triggered a personal memory.

Behind the front desk of a small hotel near Lake Llanquihue just north of the town was a watercolor painting a ship named the Albert Ballin. It is the same vessel aboard which my wife Elfriede came from Germany with her family as an immigrant child to find a new home in the United States. It was the first time she had seen any trace of the ship since standing at its rail and looking wide-eyed at the Statue of Liberty.

On its voyage in March the Society Explorer will sail north along the coast to Valdivia, then turn up a river to explore inland wilderness and villages.

Back at sea, passengers will take to motorized rubber rafts on several occasions to explore the various islets and their wildlife on the journey up the South American coast.

A team of experts in geology, ornithology and marine biology will be aboard for the voyage. The trip ends at Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Packages are available for combining with other expeditions, including a three-day exploration of the Orinoco River and an eight-day trip, with a limit of 16 participants, to the Galapagos Islands.

For complete information, including prices, check with your travel agent or Society Expeditions Cruises, 3131 Elliott Ave., Suite 700, Seattle, Wash. 98121, toll-free (800) 426-7794.

The following tour companies also offer Latin American adventures:

Overseas Adventure Travel, 349 Broadway, Cambridge, Mass. 02139, (800) 221-0814; LADATCO Tours, 2220 Coral Way, Miami, Fla. 33145, (800) 327-6162; Love Holidays/Uniworld, 15315 Magnolia Blvd., Suite 110, Sherman Oaks 91403, (818) 501-6868; Hemphill Harris Travel Corp., 1600 Ventura Blvd., Suite 200, Encino 91436, (818) 906-8086, and Maupintour, 1515 St. Andrews Drive, Lawrence, Kan. 60046, (800) 255-4266.

For more information on travel to Chile, contact the Chilean National Tourist Board and/or Lan Chile Airlines at 510 West 6th St., Suite 1210, Los Angeles 90014, (213) 627-4293.