Puerto Varas

 Renee and I have moved further South to the lakeside town of Puerto Varas. Upon arrival it was a special day as it was Renee´s Birthday!!! So congrats to me on my wifes birthday. We celebrated by eating a great meal out at a very nice restaurant with a nice view of the lake. We changed location for a couple drinks, then returned to our 8 person dorm room for a good nights rest.

In the morning we departed on a 1.5 hour bus ride to the base of Volcano Osorno (2800 m at the top). In Spanish a Volcano is called a Volcane...I like that better so from now on I will refer to them as Volcanes. We enbarked on a stunning 3 hour hike from the teal green lake below up towards the Volcane. The trail leads through piles of ash and old molten rock through the trees up the Volcane at an angle. We reached just below the snow line for a beautiful view of other distant snowcapped volcanes and bright green lakes below.

We took a different route back more along the lakeshore, rather than through the woods. It was great until we were completely overtaken by swarms of giant Horseflies!!! They were 2 times bigger than our Canadian Horseflies, and completely presistant to get in your face. There was dozens of them swarming our bodies at all times. After putting on our rain jackets for protection in the sweltering heat, I started killing them with my hat. I killed dozens of them as we walked, but it was a battle I could not win. My arm was getting sore from swinging so much, I needed a reliever from the bullpen, but nobody was warming up. So we pulled up our hoods and walked on.

On the way to town we stopped at a roaring waterfall draining the teal mountain lake. It was the clearest water I have seen. From the 10 meter high viewing platform you could see many 12¨ trout circling the pools below the waterfall. 


We are now headed to Castro, Chile to spend a few days for Christmas as buses will not be running.

 COLIN