Well, we left Patagonia behind and after a full day of traveling that took us on a 3 hour bus ride from Puerta Natales to Punta Arenas, a 2 hour flight from Punta Arenas to Puerto Montt, we caught a local short bus to Puerta Varas, arriving in the late afternoon. We walked into town and found A-frame, chalet-style buildings, friendly blond, blue-eyed folks, a lovely lake-side setting fringed by a manicured, waterfront promenade with snow-capped peaks in the distance... No, not the alps, the Andes, of course! They don't call this town the "Lucerne of Chile" for nothing!
This is Volcano Osorno in the distance...
We checked into the Outsider's Inn, and were greeted by a German speaking, elderly gentleman with a twinkle in his blue eyes. Austrian, he told us. The area we are in now is called the Lake District, and about a century ago, Chile did a massive recruit of Swiss and Bavarian industrialists and entreprenuers to the area, luring many of these people to the beautiful region, which actually reminded them a lot of home. They quickly set up shop here, and the Bavarian influence can be seen everywhere. We had a fantastic dinner, and for the first time on this trip, just relaxed in the evening. Too bad we were only in town for one night.
The next morning, we caught a bus to Valdivia, and spent the sunny afternoon in this elegant and sophisticated university town. We had a delicious lunch at the Cafe Hausmann, sampled their refreshing micro-brew, and the gracious owner even treated us to the house specialty crudito- raw, mashed up beef on toast, covered with onions, lemon juice, and some sort of a vegetable cream tartar sauce- believe me when I say that it was truly, absolutely delicious! We looked around us and it was really the only item anyone else in the restaurant was ordering... like heaping plates of this stuff!
We had a few hours before we had to catch an evening bus to our next destination, so we headed to the Mercado Fluvial, a bustling fish/produce market right on the waterfront. It was an actual, functioning market, with many of the locals wandering about to check out the fresh catch of the day, and watching the big sea lions on the wharf begging for scratch from the fishmongers. We got to try murta, a sweet, peppery berry that we had never seen before, and bought a bag to munch on for our boat cruise.
We thought we would be the only people on this boat, that would cruise in a circle around the river Valdivia, but a few minutes before we left, a group of 2 women and a man got on board as well. The man picked a table near us, and immediately struck up conversation in English...
"So, where are you from?" Turns out, Gabriel is a native Chilean, but immigrated to New Zealand many years ago, and is now living in Melbourne, Australia. When we met him, he was traveling with his mother and mother in law. He seemed happy to have an opportunity to speak English, and proceeded to translate the entire tour for us, which was great, because, otherwise, we would have sat there smiling through the whole thing like a couple of goons. We talked about our families, our passion for traveling, our professions, and Chilean culture. At the end of the cruise, we parted ways, exchanged information to remain in contact, and wished each other well.
We had about another 2 hours before we had to catch our bus, so we took a walk through the university and checked out the botanical gardens. Nothing amazing, but then again, we weren't sure if we actually found the main gardens. Totallly dehydrated and exhausted from travel, we found a chi-chi cafe, where we tried a truly delicious kuchen, and I ordered my favorite Chilean drink, RASBERRY JUICE! It's soooooooooo good!
We made it to the terminal de buses in good time, and caught our bus to Pucon. It was a smooth ride, although it's always a little bit tough to cruise into a new town after dark. You really don't get the full feel of the place, and I think there is a certain apprehension that pervades even the most optimistic of minds. However, we made it to the Hostel Geronimo with no problem and managed to book a hiking excursion to climb the Volcano Villarica the following day. The owners of our hostel really bent over backwards trying to help, even though they didn't speak much English, and called the excursion guide for us, who actually came over to our hostel at 9 pm to assure us that the hike would be "no problemo." Cool! We found a nice Italian joint for dinner and carbo-loaded for our big day.
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