Moving on. It was with some reluctance that we moved on from our cabin overlooking the lake. We headed out of town towards Ruta 5 which in this part of Chile is full metalled and a toll road. Osorno town is about 80 miles from the Puerto Varas junction and we soon found ourselves turning off at the Osorno junction and one again heading east towards the Andes. It says something about the size of Vn Osorno that despite driving an hour away from it, it still looms high in the distance.

Tonight we are staying at Anticura, barely a village within the Parque Nacional Puyehue. The road inland was long and wide, lined with cabanas and homes selling eggs, cheeses and jams. For such a wide road the speed was 60 km but the locals didn't observe that. We did see a caribinero with a speed gun but we had been flashed and had already staunched our speed.

To our left were the crystalline waters of Lago Puyehue where people were bathing on the volcanic grey beaches. Vn Puntaguido stood out like a sharpened pyramid in contrast to the soft cone of Osorno. To the north east once could see the Cordon Caulle range with the cone of Vn Puyehue on its southern flank. We had passed this way in 2009 on our great road trip when we went down to the Glaciar Perito Moreno on the Argentinian Ruta 40 and came back via the Carretera Austral in Chile. We hadn’t intended to come this way but a puncture and then a breakdown meant we had to leave Chile and go back to Bariloche in Argentina to pick up a new vehicle. We shot through here as the fastest way back to Chile and its lakes, but have always meant to return. That holiday was a really crazy road trip, covering huge distances with sometimes 12 hour driving days on gravel roads and with no petrol stations for 100s of kilometres. This trip is less ambitious and we arrived at Anticura just two and a half hours after leaving Puerto Varas.

The lodge we are staying at was much more rustic than the accommodation we have enjoyed so far but it is the only place in this part of the national park. About 15 km away is the Termas de Puyehue which is meant to be Chile’s top spa resort with a hotel that reminded Joan of the one in The Shining. (By the way, Kevin has just finished Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining, Dr Sleep, on this holiday.)

Cabanas Anticura has several Toblerone shaped cabins set in wooded fields, well apart from each other. They are a little battered and could do with some TLC but the living here is on the breadline and we guess maintenance is costly. The receptionist was a young "dude", half-Chilean, half-German who had originally turned up here for the adrenaline rush and somehow came to stay. Reggae music was playing loud in the entrance hall and the atmosphere was a bit laid back and groovy, rather than, ironically, the Germanic efficiency of Cabanas Altue in Puerto Varas. We were told where to buy eggs, cheeses and other local produce at nearby homes. One of the other people working there asked us to be fair in what we paid as local people were so keen to get some money to supplement their revenue that they would virtually give their wares away.

The place we are staying offers canoeing on the nearby Rio Golgol, long distance trekking and other outdoor activities but we had come here for “cabalgatas” i.e. horseriding. There’s a business nearby which offers trips out on to the flanks of Cordon Caulle- Puyehue. There are also hot springs nearby to enjoy.

We were shown our cabin. It was a curious affair with five dorm style single beds in the main room which also had a dining area and kitchen bar. At the back there was a double bedroom and a bathroom off it. If you were using it as a group the other guests would have to come into the nain bedroom to access the bathroom! There was a radiator and a wood-burning stove too and we had to stop the young dude putting on the heating as it is the height of summer here.

Near the cabins are some forest walks to nearby waterfalls. So rather than go out to buy food, we thought we would spend the rest of the day walking these trails and then cobble together a meal from what we had. We saw two falls, the Salto del Indio and the Salto de las Princesa, both of which were enchanting. At some point Joan realised that she was no longer wearing her sun glasses so we checked back at reception. They weren’t there but her credit card was! Joan reckoned she had put them down in the woods and we went straight back to the place where she thought she might have dropped them and there they were.

Before making dinner we rearranged the cabin, pushing the single beds together towards the back and pulling the dining table out of the gloom and to the front by the double doors. As it went dark we ate a dinner of spaghetti with a mushroom and asparagus sauce.