Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas and Chiloe

Well I have been in Puerto Montt for a few days. I am staying at a rather expensive hostel but it is nice to splurge sometimes. It has heating in all the rooms (this is rare in chile!) and I have my own bathroom with a bath! It was very exciting to have my first bath since I left. Also the owner is super helpful and gave me lots of tourist tips, which was really great as I knew it would be it is difficult to travel this time of the year, but it is a little more so than I thought. Many tour companies close for winter, there is less frequent transport and tourist offices close early which shut on weekends. The good thing everything is cheaper!

Puerto Montt is a pretty large city they have two big shopping malls here. It is also one of the biggest Salmon fishing ports around. Most of the houses are made of shingled wood which makes them pretty cute, but they look a bit old and battered.

















The rain followed me here, so the first day was pretty mellow. The next day the weather cleared up and I took a bus to Puerto Varas which is by a lake and a very pretty touristy city. I had to wait 2 and a half hours until my next bus to Petrohue so I walked around and had me some cake! When the bus arrived I went to the Saltos de Petrohue, which is a waterfall. I walked around the national park which was empty and the scenery was spectacular as the sky was clear and the falls raging from all the rain. Also volcano Osorno towers over the forest. It was so great to finally be out in nature again. Then I headed back to Puerto Montt.

















The next day I took a bus to Chiloe which is an island of the coast, you take a bus which travells across on a barge. I visited the town of Ancud. Chiloe is kind of like Tasmania, the people are a little backward, but it probably has even less going for it! Well apparently there is good seafood (but due to previous illnesses I am staying away from that). I went for the weekend, however everything closes at 12 noon on Sat and everything is closed Sun. So there was not too much to do my first day. I walked around the town seeing the sights which did not take too long.

My main reason for going was visit the national park and penguin collony. However there were no tours running as there were no other tourists, so I was going to borrow a bike to ride out and then hitch a boat ride with the local fishermen. However it rained again so no penguins!

Well, you can call me Captain Hull from now on. Tomorrow I am catching a boat to Puerto Natales in Patagonia. It is a big boat and we will sail through the fjords of Patagonia for 3 days. Although I am not a huge fan of boats ¨apparently¨ the ride is not too rough I am really looking forward to it, the scenery is meant to be spectacular. Check out http://www.navimag-ferries.com/english.asp for more info!