Argentina to Chile thru the Lakes

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We have booked a 3 days lakes crossing from Argentina into Chile. This started with a catamaran across lake Argentino then a bus ride, another catamaran across lake Todos Los Sabtos another bus then customs on the Argentine side, another bus then customs on the Chilean side. The Chilean customs were a bit like they use to be in India i.e. open the suitcase and rucksack, empty it all out then leave it for you to pack.

We are in Peulla, a beautiful place with just two hotels. The one we are booked in is really good, the room and view of the volcanoes is nice (I think after seven days of beautiful scenery we are getting a little blase about it). There´s a stream that runs through the middle of the hotel with little bridges over it. In the afternoon we went for a hike up one of the hills, with the hope of getting views of the lake, but as I said before, sometimes the signs just end, so after nearly an hour of up hill hiking we saw nothing. Back to the hotel. Dinner was very nice, we sat with guess ... yes a couple from Oz (Brisbane). We had a good chat until late.

17.11.08 We are checking out, going for a hike around some of the stream and lake before we catch the catamaran to Puerto Varas; were we are staying tonight. The boat trip was really good, it´s a clear day so we saw the two volcaneos:Osorno and Calbuco (see pics) and the scenery was good. Got picked up for the hours ride to Puerto Varas. The hotel is on the lake, built into the hillside. We have a room with a view of the lake and the two volcaneos. We got some cash from a machine (up to now I´ve been using my credit card which wasn´t much use in Argentina, but in Chile it´s accepted everywhere). This place is famous for the seafood so we went to a restaraunt on the lake and had dinner with a nice bottle of Carmenere. It´s not cheap here, in fact this is the most expensive meal we´ve had in 8 weeks.

18.11.08 We have the day here before we get picked up to go to Puerto Montt. It´s cloudy (so the view from the room is just the lake). The tours on offer are ones that we have already done apart from the volcaneo hike, but on such a cloudy day we´ve been told its not worth it. We are going to go round the town and lake.

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