Hotel Ensenada Puerto Varas

... up and relax for the evening. Hostel was a lovely little family run affair that was converted from a house and had a very homely feel that made us feel very much at home, as did the owner. There was nothing really much to report about Puerto Montt as we spent the day watching tv and munching on snacks in our room, but from the taxi tour it didn&#8217;t seem like we were missing much!<br><br>The next morning we caught a micro bus to Puerto Varas which ...

... a waterfall. Puerto Varas is a pretty little town. Stayed in great hostel, comfiest bed I have stayed in in a long time. Mooched around town for 2 days, saw some sights, drunk some coffee and read a book. Very relaxing. The highlight though was finding a fellow Liverpool supporter (guy from Ireland running marathons across south America) and watching Liverpool beat Man Utd at home by 4 goals to 1. Excellent.

... a forest that was so covered in green. It was DRIPPING with green! Lichens, low mosses, hanging mosses...green green everywhere. I have been through a lot of forsests...but nothing like this one. If a magical forest were to exist, it would be right there. We continued on through a couple of roaring rivers, and the landscape surprisingly changed as we entered a different valley that was surrounded by huge granitic domed ...

... not having a car limited our options, so we basically did everything we could do on foot. The day started with a 5 hour hike to Salto Grande, the biggest of the waterfalls in Torres Del Paine. It was definitely less painful than any part of the Inca Trail but the wind was crazy, at times we had to hold on to each other and nearby trees to stop ourselves from being blown away. But it was well worth the effort, the waterfall was ...

... tell of one of the most beautiful lakes in Chile. An hour down the road and I found Lago Todo los Santos which was definitely the nicest so far. Surrounded by hills and forests on all sides and a wonderful emerald green, it was very secluded and had a great view of the nearby volcan Osorno. I wandered down the river there a while to see the rapids and it was a nice little day trip. Bit of a filler destination while I was waiting for the real adventure down south.

... back to his own bed where he spent the rest of the morning sleeping. Lovely. We watched the boat manoeuvre through the narrows which was really good. At the narrowest point it´s 80 metres and the boat is 20 metres. It sounds like there´s planty of room but when you see it from the boat´s perspective it looks very close. And that was it! We got to Puerto Natales safe and sad to leave the boat, we were so glad we decided to take the boat. Highly reccommended.

... get a couple of bus trips to Santiago but we decided it would be a better option on the boat. The Navimag is quite famous for travelers in this part of the country, it also serves as a transporter for livestock between Natales and P Montt. There was about 40 of us on the boat and by the 2nd day we all knew each others names and we were like one big family. I just chilled out, ate lots and had a few wee glasses of vino. We met Irish ...

... as if we were in an Alpine town with lakes and mountains and wooden chalets and the German settlers had brought a definite European influence. This area has salmon farms and exports all over the world. They have cages in the lakes where they keep the salmon for 6 months and then move them to the ocean for 18 months to grow huge; trying to replicate their wild life-cycle. Needless to say we dined on delicious grilled salmon ...

... chasing the tourism opportunities! In the afternoon the sun actually came out so there was a mass exodus onto the deck with people sunbathing, playing giant chess and generally admiring the view. The early evening saw the one rocky part of the journey where the boat had to leave the fjords and travel on the sea for a while. This made for an amusing dinner time with people trying to carry their dinner trays back ...

... spot by the river for lunch. It was beautiful, right by the fast flowing river, in front of some mountains complete with mini waterfalls flowing down them and not a soul around. After lunch and some more wandering around we hopped on another bus down to the lake in front of the volcano; Lagos Todos Los Santos, a fairly deserted black sanded beach with emerald green water and amazing views of Volcano Osorno. We pottered ...