quite a good trip it was.....
i live in santiago so valparaiso is quite a destination for me, for work issues or just to go for the weekends.... very nice place to live too.
Valdivia was home between 1996 and 2009. I studied there and after graduating worked in ASENAV for some 9 years, which is the big blue buildings shipyard you must have seen across the river on the costanera. I just love that place, fresh and cheap fish all year long, quite a warm summer and cold winter. After Valdivia i left for Seattle for quite some time and it was not much of a change other than the size of the city.
Puerto Montt is similar to Valdivia in many ways, but is larger. All the vessels you mention, with all the piping and equipment on the aft deck, are all wellboats (or live fish carriers). I worked on the construction and design of a whole bunch of those (still do). Also there you probably saw a bunch of flat top ferries that work between Puerto Montt and Chiloe and a couple passanger vessels we also worked in Asenav.
When i was in the university i had the chance to be onboard one of the Navimag ferries for a month as a deck officer trainee on the same Puerto Montt-Puerto Natales route yo took. It is quite a ride in the winter through the golfo de penas. I didnt see too much of Natales as we used to arrive late in the evenings and leave very early the next day. Never went to Punta Arenas, but sometime will do....
Kind regards
German