Now that I'm getting seriously behind on the blog posts, I think it's time that I did some serious updating!!
So arrival in Puerto Varas, looks pretty dodgy at first. So my experience in Puerto Varas wasn't amazing. A quaint town and probably what I needed after the frivolities of the previous places. I head up to the viewpoint of town, Cerro Phillippi, but it was pouring down with rain; most of my time is taken up the next couple of days by chilling out on the lake and visiting the local handicrafts markets. So, bored of Puerto Varas, I head to Frutillar, a very quaint German town (literally, there were "kuchenladen"s and everything). It's pretty stunning, on the East side of Lake Llaniquehue, which Puerto Varas borders too. It's directly in front of the Orsorno volcano, and the views are pretty stunning. Is it bad that the highlight of my trip here is the toilets I found in the theatre there?? Well, it was, and while I was there, I went to a free photography exhibition on the famous people of Chile, which was pretty cool, and I definitely looked the part walking around with my DSLR. Got back to Varas in time to catch a tour to the Osorno volcano. I didn't climb it this time. Phew! No, 79 people died in the last 9 months from trying to climb the volcano, so it's off limits. Thank goodness, I don't think my legs would be able to cope! The tour was interesting - 4 Brazilians and myself meant that the tour wasn't even given in Spanish. It's in Portuguese. Great. Don't understand a thing, and after most of the talking the guide finally asks me if I understood anything and repeats what he can be bothered to say in English. Turns out the reason why so many people died climbing the volcano (which is only 2,500m) is because a neighbouring volcano (I've forgotten the name) became active and started spewing ash, much like the Iceland disaster a little while back. This not only impaired visibility, but weakened the ice, so that when people were trekking over what looked like a flat glacier, there were cravasses under some of the sections of ice with only thin sheets of ice over the top, that were giving way when people were climbing up. Probably a good thing I gave it a miss then.
I get a few recommendations while I'm here about a place called Ancud, in Chiloe, an island about half an hour from the mainland, and I change up my schedule to leave Puerto Varas early and skip over to Puerto Montt (which is a dive, so I'm pretty glad I'm not sticking around). But I make a BIG mistake on the second bus, I fall asleep and don't really pay attention to where we are. Suddenly I wake up as we leave what looks to be Ancud bus station (turns out there are 3, easy mistake). I get out of the bus and trudge the now 30 minutes back to the bus station, and then realise I'm at the wrong bus terminal to get to the hostel I've booked. Oops. I ask a few people how far it is to walk. One guy tells me that it's really far and offers me a lift. Unfortunately for me, he's a taxi driver, and so of course he's trying to take me for a ride. I'm so tired and fed up by this point that I arrange a price and get to the hostel just fine. The hostel is amazing, comfy beds, nice showers.
Now Ancud is a pretty town. All the churches in Ancud, and the other city, Castro, are UNESCO world heritage sites. I walk to the fort and have a look around (must learn more about Chilean history) and the markets. The fish market there was pretty cool, and one of the fishmongers was cutting up some stone-looking sea creature called piura (apparently translates as sea-squirt, but I have no idea what that means either), and I tried some (raw) and it was an interesting strong smoky flavour. Strange. The owner of the hostel, Claudio, is pretty cool and he and his friend Francisco invited me in for beer and cooked me pasta. Awesome. The next morning, I get why people recommended this hostel. There are SCRAMBLED EGGS for breakfast. Sounds ridiculous to be this excited by scrambled eggs, but it's the little things..! Claudio arranged a tour of the north part of the island, and we went to see the penguins!! Everyone is into birds here, even Claudio had a book on birds of Chile in his car - and we spotted a Kingfisher before arriving at the beach. The penguin tour is a little tour around some of the islands and we learn that penguins have a gland in their mouths that pumps out the salt enabling them to drink sea water. Pretty cool! Have a dodgy empanada and head to the rocky beach of Petrohue. Stunning. I find out the Dutch girls on our tour are coming on the Navimag, the boat that leaves from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. So after much alcohol consupmtion and some pretty tasty hot dogs, I hit the sack. Drinking probably wasn't the best idea the day before a long boat trip....
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