Sunday 8th

First of all a correction for yesterdays entry, its not Puyehue that we can see but Volcano Osorno .

Today spent hiking in the National Park Vincent  Perez Rosales, first through the forest then cutting down to walk back along the foreshore of Lago Todas los Santos. Great views of Osorno. Volcanic Osorno is 2652 my high so predominates the landscape. Posting a few pictures of an amazing tree that we came across on our walk along the lake foreshore. Appears to have an extra root system that gives an 'umbrella' effect.

Saturday 7th Dec Yet another Wow day

Have hired a ute for the week to explore this amazing ' Lakes District' of Chile. Left PV by 8.30 and headed towards Puerto Montt then up along the coast ,passing fishing villages , shanty towns until we reached the turn off for the national park . A beautiful 9km walk all up into the national park following the river, pass a waterfall then arriving at the famous Alarce Milenario, the  3000year old tree.
More dirt roads, just made the ferry ( ferry replaces the road on this stretch of the coast) then continued along more dirt roads  skirting beautiful lakes, then all of a sudden Puyehue volcano was in front of us again ( this was the volcano we could see from PV )
Found our B and B Fox Hill up a dirt track. Stunning views of Puyehue.  House is beautiful ,built by the owners ( they are from Canada and Russia originally) fabulous garden so lots of fresh vegetables for dinner. We are in heaven.

Friday 6th Puerto Varas

A lazy start over a beautiful breakfast , then a long walk exploring. PV is built around a long bay of Lago Llanquihue,and its German colonial architecture gives it a European feel. As the crow flies we are not far from Bariloche, Argentina, where we were 2 weeks ago, just on the other side of the mountains.
The church Sagrado Corazon de Jesus interesting, built in 1916 made of tin ( as are many buildings,particularly down south) beautiful wood interior.
Passed what appeared a pre school, students and parents were leaving with balloons which were tied onto there cars, they then proceeded to drive around the town with their horns blaring!!! Graduation from pre school?  What will they do when they have finished high school, the mind boggles. 

Transport day Thursday 5th Dec

What a varied day. Began with a half hour hike to bus station ( this great pre school spied on the way,what a great exit for the kids ,down the slide!!) A 200km bus trip next ,heading south to Punta Aranas, (about as far south as we could go) next a 2hour flight north to Puerto Montt then 40km taxi to Puerto Varas.
PV a beautiful town situated on a lake with snow covered volcano's as a backdrop!!!
Staying in a fun,quirky hotel and enjoying exploring the town, becoming experts on Pisco Sours, had a spectacular seafood dinner, enjoying the lush vegetation and beautiful gardens.

Torres del Paine Thursday 4th Dec

Little prepared us for such an amazing day. Yes we knew the Torres del Paine were up there on the things to see here but ,wow , took our breath away. A 150 km to park entrance then another 40km in to where we did a gentle 8km walk out to a top vantage point.

Very lucky with the weather, sunny ,little cloud but it was windy,very windy.
Again the photos here don't do the place justice.

Chilly in Chile

A early start up to the bus station then a relatively smooth trip to Puerto Natales  in southern Chile. Trip took us 6 hours all up including the border crossings so that was pretty good.
First impression of PN is of a wind swept tatty town,rubbish blowing about. Second impression ,exactly the same.
A small town that has suddenly had a tourist boom as people flock to see the famous Torres del Paine national park. There is a severe accommodation shortage ( we couldn't get 2 rooms at the same place and we booked months ago!!) Lots of young back packers, lots of run down hostels. View from  our bedroom window last night over to neighbours backyard revealed rows of tents!! Jolly glad it wasn't us settling down to a night in a tent with 60km winds blowing around us.
Poor visibility, rain and strong winds saw us change our plans for today. A drive along the coast then inland for a short way then back to PN ,beautiful country side. Tomorrow what ever the weather we head out the 150km to Torres del Paine.

Argentina Observations

Well this is our last full day in Argentina (unless there are problems at the Chilean border with striking customs officials and we get turned back like what has happened a few days ago to other travellers )
Maryanne and Wayne have gone out for the day horse riding , we opted for the softer option and stayed in town.
No wind today, its all relative, its still blowing about 20kmph.
Cracked the code re the bottles on car roof tops, turns out it means the car is for sale, having said that we haven't seen any bottled cars this far south, wind would probably blow them away.

So a few observations about this beautiful country.

Its clean, I mean really clean, there is NO rubbish in the streets or along the roads side after one has left a built up area. No plastic,old bottles,car wrecks,old mattresses etc that seem to 'decorate ' our highways.

Gorgeous people ( except for the pickpocket in B A ) happy helpful and kind,even with a language barrier .

There was obviously a glut of white paint at some stage,to use it up they painted white stripes on the road to indicate what to us would be a pedestrian crossing. To the Argentinian it is a pretty pattern, nothing more.

The same could be said for the double yellow line down the centre of the road, surplus yellow paint.

Extraordinary amount of meat is served,and generally meal sizes are huge.