Terrazas Del Lago Puerto Varas

... to Puerto Montt. By the time we got our luggage from the hotel we had missed the last bus to Chiloe, a small island off the coast of Chile. We would stay another night in Puerto Montt and leave for Chiloe in the morning. We say goodbye to Francisco, he has been our companion and partner in crime for the past week. He took his vacation a week earlier (his school has a different vacation schedule) so we will not be accompanying us to Chiloe. He has been ...

... or so I have been told - having arrived at night and it being cloudy all day, I have yet to see any of them). I have had my first taste of British weather here too (I thought I would avoid April showers by switching hemispheres) which means there is even less to do than in Villarrica. But the rest may do me good - I start hitting the national parks for a fair bit of walking next week, after the 4 day boat trip down to Puerta Natales on Friday.

... the LAN airlines office and soon found out that all flights were booked until my scheduled departure, which was 4.5 days away. Well, OK then! So I started asking the LAN lady where I should stay around here, any good places to go and dance, etc. She started pointing and telling me in spanish ¨well, I wouldn´t go east, because that area is dangerous. I wouldn´t go around the southern area, because that is dangerous. I also ...

... campers now, have the baby wipe showers down to a T! This campsite was a little more glam than we had had previosuly, a wind breaker for our tent, a great campsite restaurant, hot showers and flushing loos, luxury! The next morning we stepped out of our tent to the most incredible view, we were speechless and I think the pictures show just how stunning it is. We spoke to the owner about the activities available and we soon realised ...

... in a minute) Whitewater rafting was very fun and scenic, but not exactly the wild rapids that I dealt with on the level 5 rapids in Alaska. However, the pictures should also speak for themselves. When we finished the rafting, our tour guides set up a little picnic inside one of the dressing rooms (We had to hide from the horseflies - that's how bad they were) That's when we started passing the mate. Mate is ...

... no doubt a nice little earner! That night there was Bingo and a party in the bar to celebrate our last night. In true German style, along with Marco and Katherin, we raced upto the bar after dinner to save our seats for the Bingo (tragic, I know). Sadly none of us won anything but we were treated to some lovely Casio keyboard playing and singing by one of the crew which cheered us up immensely. We were also treated to some dancing from a guy ...

... we trekked 7 hours to the Torres which was pretty tough going, lots of snow, really slippy ice in parts and the trails were only a foot wide to huge drops into canyons at one stage, adrenalin was kicking in. The last part of the climb was about 1km and very steep and it was all worth it the top, amazing views over Torres Del Pienne and the Torres staring down at a perfect lake. The wind chill was numbing our fingers and toes on top ...

... one night though so we decided on a Peurto Varas pub crawl instead! We had afterall just spent the last month kayaking and trekking all over the place so we reckoned we needed a break. We had a great night testing the pisco sours in all the local establishments, sampling a chilean karaoke cocktail bar and some really nice local dingy pubs. The music everywhere was awful. Everywhere was blaring mostly dance music videos from the early 90 ...

... on from this we had the ´Best (read: only) bingo in Patagonia´ followed by a cheesy disco. A good night´s entertainment I´m sure you can imagine! The next morning we arrive at our destination very early and left the ship all wishing we hadn´t drunk so much the night before. We had arrived at Puerto Montt, in the south of the Lake District region ready to explore the area and glad to be on solid land again!

... from Petrohue we decided to have a go. Although we were limited to how far we were allowed to go, we still managed have some fun going as fast as we could, obstructing many a Chilean driver, popping some wheelies and admiring the views of the lake and volcano. After a few days exploring and with a taste for volcanoes we decided to head on another sleepy village called Villarica, complete with the active volcano Villarica.