Blogs from Puerto Varas, Los Lagos, Chile, South America

We arrived in Puerto Varas after our 4 day stint on the Navimag exhausted from doing nothing. We had to spend the first day doing absolutely nothing. This is a lovely small town on lake llanquihue opposite Volcan Osorno in the chilean lake district, a very pituresque area. We hired bikes on our second day and cycled 64km to a nearby lakeside town called Frutilla. We found a lovely cafe and shared one of the bigest slices of cake you have ever seen, although it is easy to justify such things when you are cycling! The bike ride was wonderful, one we needed the exercise it felt great to be doing something again, and two the ride itself was fabulous. We followed the lake through undulating scenery passed small, pretty farms all with a view of ... read more

Me voici repartie vers le sud direction Puerto Montt où Delphine me rejoint lundi pour un mois. Et à Puerto Montt, il n’y a vraiment rien de joli, je l’ai bien compris. Donc ce sera une pause en chemin ce week-end à Puerto Varas à 20 min. Je vais peut-être ouvrir un autre thème: lac et volcan! Puerto Varas est une autre station balnéaire située au bord d’un lac et ‘non loin’ du volcan Osorno qui a lu aussi des neiges éternelles mais qui est fermé à cette période. Même si elle connaît aussi un développement touristique important et permet de faire kayak de mer, rafting, pêche à la mouche et randos, elle me déçoit au premier abord car elle est beaucoup plus grande et moins carte postale que Pucon. Mais elle est aussi imprégnée historiquement ... read more

In this adventure we cross a border, befriend German Psychologists and eat our own weight it tasty, tasty seafood. Another stamp in the passport; Chile. Eleanor admired the detail on the stamp and the fact that it has both blue and red ink; very stylish. It took a while to get here as our proposed route across the Andes was Esquel to Chaiten and then the ferry to the island of Chiloe. However, timetables change and in the off-season this doesn't always get comunicated, which forced us to detour back via Bariloche to cross the border on a bus to Orsono. Chile appears to be slightly paranoid about fruit and vegetables and sniffer dogs are on hand to ensure that none of this dangerous stuff makes it across the border where it could to make a ... read more

What a difference a day makes! Within 24 hours we moved from the warmth and beaches of Rio to the lakes of Bariloche with the snow covered peaks of the Andes Mountains in the background. From sunning ourselves on the beach in Rio to rugging-up in our jackets, gloves, scarves and beanies, for a tour around Lago Nahuel Huapi and National Park, we found the the chanage of environment quite dramatic. Bariloche's scenery from various vantage points is picture perfect and it rivals anything we have seen. A chair lift took us to the best viewing point - clear blue skies, crystal blue lakes, forests to water level and snow-capped mountains behind - what more could you ask for. Our hotel sat on the edge of the lake overlooking this stunning view. Bariloche is a ski ... read more

January and February are high summer in Chile, when Chileans escape in droves from their cities - smoggy, sweltering Santiago in particular - to enjoy their country's extraordinary natural wealth: its lakes, its rivers, its mountains, its beaches.We'd never have guessed as much over the past 6 weeks, however:so out of the way is the Carretera Austral that only a relatively small handful of people make it there. Chiloé, with its (not altogether unearned) reputation as a place of endless rain, also escapes the summer hordes despite its accessibility. And so we have been lulled into a dangerously false sense of security. Our plan for after Chiloé is to visit regions X and IX - Los Lagos and Araucanía respectively - just when tens of thousands of Chileans are doing so as well. There really isn't ... read more