After arriving back on the mainland from Chiloé we drove back to the Lake District and stopped in Puerto Varas for some excellent lunch including a massive piece of chocolate cake in a beautiful cafe. An hour further east took us to a place called Ensenada where we wanted to stay. The town (if you can call it that) is nothing more than a few places to stay, restaurants and nothing else but it's situated on a beautiful lake and right below the amazing Osorno volcano. It took us a while to find a place; in all we visited 5 before finding one in our price range but once we found it we couldn't have asked for more. The B&B was run by an incredibly friendly Brazilian-Canadian couple who served a great breakfast. We left our bags and headed back out as it was already 3pm. After half an hours drive north along the lake we ended up on more gravel and dirt roads in the search for a waterfall. It was easy to find with a constant stream of families leading the way. After parking and a 20 minute walk we arrived at the impressively high falls, where others were swimming but we weren't brave enough in the cold pool. After that we drove back and up the Osorno volcano (fun corners to drive) to the ski lifts for a close up view of the glacier and a sunset view on the valleys and lake below - stunning. We finished the day with a small dinner of empanadas and kuchen and then sat on the balcony of our B&B surrounded by trees and volcanos.

The wildfire alert level was high during our few days by the lake and we saw a couple of fires in the forest at the base of the Osorno volcano. The response seemed to be very quick with helicopters dropping water and numerous fire trucks in the area.

The next day was the last day with the car and our last day in Chile for awhile so we wanted to cram a lot in but the breakfast and hospitality was so good that we actually made a slow start. We drove along a valley to the Todos Los Santos lake and got a big surprise when we saw over 10 tour buses blocking the road. We hadn't seen many tourists up till now despite it being high season but here was a big chunk of them. We had read that the lake is popular with package tourists as with 3 buses and 3 boats you can reach Bariloche in Argentina from here for a big wad of cash. (We were going to Bariloche next but would be going the long way round.)

Once we eventually got past the coaches we tried to go for a walk in the Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park but were turned back by a park ranger as we hadn't registered. So we had to walk back into town and wait in a queue while another park ranger tried to do three things at once in the office - she was quite stressed. Once we were eventually served we had to fill in three different forms before getting our park ticket! It all seemed ridiculous to us but we were eventually off on our two hour walk. We walked through the forest before returning along the shore of the lake. The ground was a mixture of black volcanic gravel and dust which was hard to walk on but walking right underneath the Osorno volcano was great. To cut back to the lake we followed what looked like a very large dried up river bed which we can only assume to be where the volcanic destruction (mud slides?) had cut through to the lake. On the walk back along the lake we came across a family who's dad had fallen in the lake with his iPhone in his pocket. Despite the iPhone probably being ruined he was laughing away - Chileans really are friendly people.

On our way back we stopped off at some waterfalls, which again were overrun by tourists. We've never seen a higher concentration of selfie-sticks! But once we weaved through the crowd and waited our turn to get to the front, the series of falls was worth it (just). We then drove further than we needed to for lunch because this place had llamas in a pen, which Katy was excited about. It also helped that there was an excellent volcano view and that the man working in the cafe was really nice. We shared a large salmon sandwich and then had a piece of kuchen each. By this time it was already 4pm and we were worrying that we didn't have time for the Rio Cochamó Valley. And in fact we certainly didn't have time but we set off anyway. It was an hour and a half away (one hour on gravel roads) so when we got there we didn't have much time for walking but we did over an hour and headed back. We're told that the best bits of the valley are much further in and that the place is a bit like Yosemite National Park in the USA so it's a real shame we ran out of time but the drive was beautiful and a really fun road to drive. We returned to our place and had a delicious dinner, prepared by the owner, of wild salmon (which I think I understood to be a little illegal). The local stout beer I had with it was perfect too. In all a fantastic day.

We really enjoyed having a car for a week and the massive increase in flexibility that it had given us. In the week we had stayed in 5 different places; something that would have exhausted us by bus so it had also allowed us to see a lot more in our time. I got used to driving in Chile and it turned out to be really easy as there was only minimal traffic. I only drove on the wrong side of road once and only briefly before Katy shouted at me! We (or maybe I should say I) drove 1590 Kms over 8 days covering more distance than we did in Nicaragua, Belize and El Salvador combined (these being our smallest countries visited).

I was also glad that Katy could join me in the front of the car - passengers under 1.5 metres have to sit in the back (according to safety instructions on the sun blind) due to the airbag but luckily Katy is 1.52 metres tall :-)

After dropping the car back we walked back to the bus station to return to our old life of bussing it. Our bus to Bariloche (Argentina) was over an hour late but we were upgraded for free from semi-cama (semi-bed) to cama (almost a bed) class - something we wouldn't pay for on a 6 hour day time journey. The bus drove east along the same route we had taken and then turned off to Argentina. On this new route we saw hundreds of dead but still standing trees - the nearby volcano erupted ages ago in 1960 so we weren't sure what was the cause.

The whole journey was beautiful as the stunning scenery continued in the Argentinian side of the Lake District but we had additional entertainment from watching a very fussy and angry North American lady. Firstly she was angry that some people got into "first class" without paying (oops - luckily she wasn't aware of us too). Then she got annoyed that the movie was a bit gruesome and finally she told a poor guy off for having a cigarette behind his ear at the border crossing. All fun and games.

Simon