Day 1 - Decided to leave Puerto Montt for the much nicer German settlement of Puerto Varas, 20 minutes away by bus. Found our B & B, Hostal Erika (German for Heather), with no problems although it was up a hill - Heather has a habit of finding accommodation up high. After checking in we walked around the town, had lunch on the upstairs balcony of a busy café/restaurant/cake shop and then caught the bus to Frutillar Bajo which was another German town with ...

We arrived in Puerto Montt in the mid-afternoon, it was very much a working town with a low tourist count. Before we left our hostel we asked if the town was safe to walk - "Si" said the receptionist as he slid three bolts hometo lock the door behind us. The town was dimly lit and slightly scary but undeterred we entered a local bar for our obligatory "dos cervezas". Looking around the room our eyes came to rest on the man in the corner, his face full of charac...

We left Santiago early in the morning southbound to Pucon, a small town at the foot of a live volcano and bounded on two sides by a lake. The place had more stray dogs than you could throw a stick for but they were all sleepy and laid-back except for one, who made a rush at us through the night with snarling teeth and blazing eyes, luckily he was chained and was drawn to a halt a few feet short of us - Still, it scared the life out of us. We had a great day o...

Arrived in Santiago late on Sunday evening with Frank (Dr No) and all booked into the same apartment block and went out for dinner and the new found Pisco Sours. Next day Frank moved on and we set out to explore the city armed with the 50 Spanish words we had learnt. Our very first Spanish phrase "Dos Cervesas Por Favor" was quickly put to the test and it worked, the waiter returned with two LITRE bottles of beer - We may have to modify our phrase to include a...

We arrived in Easter Island a couple of weeks before Easter (have to work on our timing) and were met at the airport by our host Marcello, who greeted us with lays made from fresh flowers and drove us and Gary and Sheree (a really nice American couple from Colorado) back to our "home". The accommodation was quite basic but clean and the layout of eight rooms surrounding a common area for eating and relaxing made for a very friendly environment. Our fellow reside...