Hotel Ayacara Frutillar

... to get some supplies for the bus trip. It was a beautiful evening in Santiago.. a magical sunset and warm to go with it! So... off we took to Puerto Montt... again we got to watch the Dark Night in Spanish... I was hoping that I´d enjoy it more the second time being able to understand a few more phrases in spanish but it didn´t happen. No dinner on the bus made me a cranky pants so I just kept quiet so Carrie didn ´t have to put up with ...

... the universe and only the leader of the tribe is allowed to bang it. It was obviously a pretty big insult to have some stupid British tourist thinking she could do it!, Unintentionally I had insulted their entire culture. Valdivia was next where we could see sealions, then Puerto Varas where there were more volcanos and another big night out where I managed to fall over in my flip flops and do myself some injury, battered knees but particularly a very sore toe, which ...

... a 300 person one, with little cabins and row upon row of bunk beds. It was really strange after so many weeks of constant change and moving to 'stop' for a few days and the only motion being the rocking to and frow (which did get quite extreme at points) i had these industrial strength travel sickness tablets, that in my paranoia at getting unwell i took even when we were still docked... and ended up sleeping most of the first day! The 4 days were generally summed up ...

... it, with Spanish subtitles. Consequently, the movies help my spanish a bit, and drive Nathan crazy. For your amusement, here´s some of the stuff we got to watch (none of the Rambo series, for perhaps the very first time. They LOVE Sly Stallone down here, and I think are dissapointed when they find out we don´t really act like that) The Golden Compass Iron Man Annapolis Unbelievably ridiculous attempt at a classical live concert staged in Euro ...

Its a big big boat. Please note. In one of these photos, the fishing boat appears to be bigger than the Navimag ferry. Not so, its just closer. Its called perspective. For further clarification please see this ...

... vista that we knew nothing about and then get back on the bus. We also saw an artisan market, the highlight being a strange candy that we bought only because we had zero clue what it was. The next day was Chiloe, a big island right off the coast. I've heard lots about Chiloe, so apparently it's really worth visiting. Unfortunately, we spent 8 hours driving roundtrip, so our trip was lightening fast and the rain meant we couldn't see the ...

So Puerto Varas, is a little port town on Lake Llanquihue (further south in the lake district) with quite a bit of German influence. Such a cute little town, but unfortunately I was only here fro one day and woke up to pouring rain:( While this did deter me from heading to the Chiloe islands (no boats went out that day any ways because of the choppy water ...

... eher einer achterbahn als einem bus gleicht! frutillar: ein kleiner verschlafener ort! aber ganz nett! nichts zum immer leben aber ein halben tag kann man da schon verbringen! neben kuchenlaeden und "clubs aleman" findet man beim genauern suchen auch ein "museo colonial aleman" was sich lohnt anzuschauen orallem wenn die ander kasse sitzenden einen ...

... with the chicas. Well after 5 days of discussing the merits of the lake, the volcano, and the philosophies of don Juan (regarding the ways of the warrior) Rutger and I really needed a break from the break. We were fully recovered from the Torres del Payne hikes and had ichy feet. So we hitched a lift the 7km to the bus stop and made plans to hike to some thermal baths... Oh, and we never actually did find that music festival!!!

... scenery. The weather was OK, the first 2 days overcast, with the 3rd and final day sunny and clear. We saw dolphins, whales and sea lions and one of the plus points was we were allowed to stand on the bridge, admiring the views, check out all this instruments as well as see what the captain was doing. The one area of the trip which everyone was dreading was the Gulfo Del Penas, a 12 hour period where we left the sheltered inland passages and ventured into the open ...