Today we left Santiago for the northern part of Chilean Patagonia. We flew into Puerto Montt, which is a huge port and seafaring town about an hour and a half flight south from Santiago. What a difference! It looked like Seattle with all the trees and bays. We had lunch in a darling restaurant with beautiful gardens called Kiel’s overlooking the bay.
After lunch we headed to the craft and fish market in Puerto Montt. Huge mussels for sale everywhere. The craft market was more trinkets than crafts. But, you could buy a llama sweater made out of llama. We wandered the three block length of the thing and all the guys were back in the bus first complaining about what a waste of time it was. The ladies had a different take on it. Oh well!
We headed down the road a bit and arrived at our destination for the night, Las Cumbres in Puerto Varas. The hotel was a large alpine-style building overlooking Lago Llanquihue (pronounced kind of like “Yankee Way”). This is a local resort town with lots of water sports and a trail head for backpackers headed to the mountains (mostly volcanoes) that surround the area. The views were breathtaking. We wandered around the town a bit and returned to the hotel’s outdoor deck overlooking the lake for a cocktail before dinner.
Travel days are tough, but this was a very nice one and we got to see a lot of beautiful scenery as we worked our way toward Bariloche.
Vaya con Gringos 