We drove as far up volcano Osorno as we could in our small, economic car. In the winter a small ski area runs up there, but in the summer us tourists are the visitors who use the ski lifts to see the amazing view they provide. We could see as far as the pacific ocean, to the island of Chiloe, where we had hoped to visit. We could see at least four volcanoes and an amazing view of the the lake. It’s the first time I’ve touched snow, in January, in the middle of summer.
We met this cool dog walking down the beach by the lake in Pucon. I guess we happen to be a lot nicer than the five thousand other people on the beach because this cool dog decided she liked us best and followed us around loyally for the next hour or so. I named her Pepino, meaning cucumber for no reason whatsoever, I just thought it suited her. She was full of life and had this crazy hobby of jumping wildly at the incredibly annoying bugs that buzzed around us constantly (you would have died Amy).
As she often scared them off it was a nice gesture, but meant for a lot of Pepino launching herself into our heads. We had a great time with her and were both really sad when we had to hide from her so that she’d stop following us.
We wish her the best…
While in Chile we were able to enjoy several meals with our family in Santiago. It was great to visit with them and see them all healthy and well. We look forward to seeing them again in the near future.
We are back in Los Angeles and enjoying our weekend of cooking and relaxing. I thought I’d go back to where I left off on our trip and post a few more pictures. After leaving Pucon we drove 3 hours south to the town of Frutillar.
The town has really great German architecture that comes from the many Germans who settled there around 1910. The town is little more than a street with great shops and restaurants, but we enjoyed a good lunch with a wonderful view of volcano Olsorno and walked around a little before heading out and around the lake further.
We drove out of Frutiller on a dirt road around the lake. After a couple hours and a few small towns we reached Ensenada. We stopped in at a couple places then checked out a few Cabanas before settling for a beautiful place right on the lake. Our cabin was fully furnished and had an incredible view of lake Llanquihue from the dining area.
We went to the small food market down the street and bought everything we needed to make an incredible meal of potatoes with meat and herbs and a creative avocado, tomato salad. We spent our day reading, drawing and took a few walks by the water.
We left the next morning (without our computer charger) and headed back north to return our rental car and catch a late flight back to Santiago.
Well, I was hoping to do better with this blog, but as the charger for our computer sits some 15 hours by bus from where we are now and the computer with all our pictures lays dead you will have to wait. We are at a hotel airport for another night in Santiago. The airline overbooked our flight and have therefore put us up here until tomorrow night. As soon as I we have purchased another charger I promise to post some more of our pictures. It has been a wonderful trip!
We arrived in Temuco, 13 hours south of Santiago early yesterday morning. So early that the guard at the airport where we were picking up our rental car offered to open the airport so that we could sit somewhere warm. We were the only ones in the entire airport. I wondered what homeland security would think of that. After a 3 hour wait at the airport the Avis rent a car worker decided it was time to show up to work and we were able to get our car. From there we drove about an hour to Pucon. What an amazing drive and an incredible city. It’s very relaxed and feels more like a vacation town in the mountains of California than any South American city I have ever visited. After a day of walking around, laying by the lake and eating good food we took a drive out to some hot springs about an hour away. On our way we picked up a couple of hitchhikers as seen in the photo above. It turned out we were passing right by their destination and we offered to even take then the extra mile directly to their doorstep. They were very grateful and we asked to take a picture with them. We soaked in the hot springs for a couple hours before we headed back to the town for a dinner of pizza and beer. Today we went rafting in level 3 rapids. It was a wonderful experience with lots of laughter. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a picture of that soon. Tomorrow we are going to wake early and take a drive a few hours more to the south to see more of the countryside. I have to say, this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
