We took a rather late breakfast in the hotel's restaurant which overlooks the promenade. Then we headed along the coast passed the Skorpios boatyards. (We went on a Skorpios cruise as part of our honeymoon.) Then it was a short journey down the Ruta 5 to catch the ferry to Chiloe. We got straight on. As we set off a family of sea lions bobbed beside us. Chiloe is reknowned for its bad weather and mists but we have rucked up in good weather. The road down to Ca...

In order to find accommodation this holiday we have used Booking.com. What it gives you is the price approximately in Sterling or sometimes, annoyingly, in US Dollars. We don't know if we could change the settings as it would be good to know the local price. On one or two times on this holiday we have been charged a little (not much) more than we expected. There is also the issue of Chilean tax which some places apply and is about 19% extra. Some places seem to c...

Part of the reason we came to Hornopiren was to visit some natural hot springs here. Our guidebooks only mention a couple but it seems there are many more. Today was a bit extravagant. Through the landlady here, we managed to charter a boat to the Island of Llancahue, a wooded island out in the Hornopiren estuary. At the ferry ramp we watched it being trailered in to the water. It was an old fishing boat, now fitted with an outboard engine. On the way we passed...

The weather here is unseasonably good and we're not complaining! In our guide book, it says the next section of the Carretera Austral is very pretty to drive. We headed out of town to find the road blocked by a committee of vultures who flew off when Kevin tried to get their photograph. We drove over a milky turquoise river and then along a narrow track which for the most part was hewn out of a cliff overlooking the sound which Hornopiren sits on. It was diffic...

After breakfast we loaded up our truck and handed the key back to the woman in the shop. Though it wasn't yet 11am, there was a guide apparently hosting a beer tasting in the shop. Just up the road we visited the Petrohue Falls. We came here on the last day of our honeymoon in 2002. It was a bit chaotic. We’d booked a last minute holiday that Joannie had seen advertised in the Guardian for a Volcanoes, lakes and glaciars tour. (Our original plan, not plann...