Terrazas Del Lago Hotel Puerto Varas

... 30 minutes. We hadn’t booked a hostel, but had read so many good reports about Compass Del Sur that we decided if we turned up early enough we could get a room, which was the case and we were so glad we chose that particular hostel as our accommodation. The staff were very friendly and spoke fluent English and the hostel itself was a veritable home from home with excellent kitchen facilities, which was ideal as we were in the mood for a couple of ...

Welcome to Puerto Varas, in Chile's Lakes District of Northern Patagonia. This sleepy lakefront town is my last stop in Chile, and my first stop on the solo portion of my trip. I got in late last night after a flight from Punta Arenas up to Puerto Montt. More language confusion, as I got to practice my still very rudimentary Spanish with my airplane seatmate and with the driver of the van from the ...

... Stone Mountain has NOTHING on these! I later found out that this area is a Mecca for rock climbers, and stumbled on one of their organized camps during a walk I took the following day. It was basically a clan of young men from varous countries who are 100% dedicated to rock climbing, finding new trails, and drawing maps. I hung out there for about 2.5 seconds before being bored out of my mind, and had a nice hike back to ...

... and due to the insane wind the mist was blown all over us which was refreshing! After some lunch we were collected by twins to go horse riding. I thought I would comment on the twins, because we thought it was quite funny to find identical Italian twins with long moustaches and berrets in the middle of TDP! We drove to the ranch and then set out on a three hour horseride, Ujal was a little sceptical but as usual after a little peer ...

Seth and I spent a couple of days in Puerto Varas staying in the most organised, German-run, hostel ever! The weather wasn´t great whilst we were here but we still managed to eat some fantastic Kuchen und Torten in an old German settlement and also catch a rodeo.

Gracious me, it is November! Geee whiz and cor blimey... I cant believe it either. Its one of those things you say every year so it shouldn't really come as much of a surprise. Inevitably it does though, winter draws on..? Ha ha not for me, bring on the southern summer!! Just hanging out here in Puerto Montt until Monday when I will be ...

... American, German, Swiss on there and had a great laugh with them all. It was a great way to relax and just dump your rucksack down for a couple of days. From here I'm heading north to Santiago for a couple of days before going further north to San Pedro de Atacama and then into Bolivia. Thank you all for your best wishes along the way so far, its nice to hear from you all. Paula, thanks for printing off all the blogs for the gang in Collon.

... we walked into town there was a street market for Easter selling eggs, bunnies, chocolates, jams made from local berries(excellent) and all sorts of related stuff. We bought a huge punnet of fresh raspberries for about $2. Quite fascinating and even a busker playing pan pipes(David's favourite, as you may imagine?). On our walk back past the local church we heard beautiful music and singing which was more to our liking. A good ...

... their seats and a few messy accidents! Thankfully, Julia had come fully prepared with sea sickness pills -so no sickness but the drowsy side effects meant she managed to sleep 12 hours non stop (we know what we will be using in future for long bus journys!) The third and final day was gloriously sunny and was spent on deck until sunset. We were also lucky enough to see dolphins, seals and even a whale. Given it ...

... in the blustering winds and took some photos of the giant but neither of us fancied attempting to climb her, bit out of our hiking abilities we thinks! Apparently ice axes and crampons are required for some of the vertical climbs which takes a meager 9 hours. Whilst wandering around the lake in Puerto Varas we had been passed by some four wheeled bike-cart type things, bugsy malone style, that caught our eye and so after ...