(- this photo is from the plane)to Puerto Montt and then a bus to Puerto Varas in the south of Chile, and the signs say that it is Patagonia, so we can add that to the list of places we have been. We had a quick tour around the city of Puerto Montt which is located on the Pacific, but is in an inlet and behind a large island, so you can't see out to sea. We stopped at the local fish market and some of the group including Mal went in to see the fish being prepared. we drove a little bit further to Puerto Varas which is located on Lago Llanquihue, the 5th largest fresh water lake in Chile.
The town is very cute with lots of houses that are made of wooden shingles as this area has a German influence. When we were walking around there were cakes that also make you think that you are in Germany, including the signs that say "kuchen" for the cakes. It reminded us of Lake Constance, the lake between Germany and Switzerland, and when we mentioned this to our tour guide she agreed. The hotel is on the side of the hill looking over the lake at the Volcano Osorno, but the weather has been overcast and raining so we haven't seen it, and it looks unlikely that we will. Nevertheless we did a 3 hour tour around our side of the Lake and it reminded us of the Mornington Peninsular - beautifully kept houses and gardens and interesting small farms.
We leave tomorrow for a 4 bus, 3 catamaran trip through the Lake District from Chile to Bariloche in Argentina. We have our fingers crossed for better weather.
So, how are you all holding up energy-wise? Did the high altitudes take much out of you after you returned to lower levels?
ReplyDeleteFirst day of Easter here - Julie has a raging head cold/flu, so the trip down the kids has been postponed. Some local dude doesn't believe in Good Friday tho - he's had a bloody bobcat - with it's extremely irritating reversing signals - going most of the afternoon. Local MP caught doing kiddie porn on the net - no names due to suppression orders here but local goss is that is a 38-yo, single, grossly overweight upper house member; a strong conservative Catholic who espouses family values blah blah = never had a real job, been in the Shoppies Union all his life then won a safe seat om the Legislative Council - yawn; you can fill in the rest for yourselves. Some impudent bod on a blog commented that he looks like he got bags of candies to corrupt kiddies, ate them all himself and then had to go on-line to get his jollies!
Enjoy the rain - you may have noticed that ACTEWAGL is putting your water rates up 13% (or some such) because you Canberrans have not been using enough water because of your wet 2010/2011! Ironic...