Puerto Montt & Chiloe Friday 2nd June - 5th June 2006 During our flight down to Puerto Montt we see numerous cloud-piercing volcanoes and the Andes are certainly a lot bigger than we had enviseaged. For some silly reason I thought that there would be just a single line of mountains running all the way down seperating Chile from Argentina. Not so, the mountain ranges stretched as far as the eye could see from the plane. All the volcanoes we could see were 'text book'by that we mean formed with a distinctive cone shape at the top and covered in snow. We arrive at about 2pm and immediately take a walk around the somewhat depressing town of Puerto Montt. We get the impression that it's a fairly rough and ready seas port town and is pretty dark and gloomy (or is that only the clouds overhead). Despite it's location next to the sea there's definitely the feeling that we have seen this kind of stuff before and relatively recently. Are we getting the backpackers blues or what? Being winter it's low season and is also about 10 degrees. Thus relatively few tours are running and we have no choice but to join the tour going tomorrow to Lago Llanquihue, Petrohue and Parque National Vincente Perez. We go out for dinner and have a great tea (Lomo Pobre or something) which is totally protein and carbohydrate loaded, not a vegetable in site and the tomato salad hardly makes up for it. What the meal does contain though is plenty of meat, fab steak, sausages, chicken and what looks (and tastes) rather like pigs intestines. After we get up pretty early the next day we are none to pleased to discover that it's raining, hard. I'm sure we could have seen some really lovely scenery but the low cloud and incessant rain made sure that we didn't. We did see some fantastic waterfalls though and a quaint little lakeside town constructed almost entirely of cypress wood. Lunch was taken at some little old ladies house, and amazingly salad was on the menu somewhere. We have limited discussion with our fellow tourists (Chilian all) and are happy to get back to our cheap hotel room to dry off. Still it was nice to get some fresh air for a change. Th next day we decide to get moving and take the bus to Chiloe, a big island to the South West. On the ferry crossing we see some seals messing about. it appears the highlight of Chiloe is the gorse bush which is taking over the place bit by bit (Somewhat harsh but true). We arrive in the main town of Castro and are shown to an expensive hotle by two little girls from the bus station. We get stared at most the way by the locals. The weather seems to have taken a big turn for the worse and it bloody freezing. What are we doing here? We go out for dinner which once again is loaded in protein and carbs, I think I am starting to get gut-rot (either that or Mad cows is certain to follow shortly). The good things about Chile so far are 1) Nobody is hassling us like in SE Asia 2) No-one can speak any English (so we can talk about them to their face without the knowing just like the locals do to us). 3) The Chilians seems nice and friendly, if a little dull. 4) We haven't seen hardly any tourists apart from natives from Santiago. The next day it's raining hard again and we decide that we have to move on again. Clearly the best place for us is inside a nice warm bus. 7hrs later we arrive in Valdivia north of Puerto Montt and right on the West coast. To top it all off, Amy wins at scrabble. No surprises then when we arrive as it bloody freezing, blowing a gale and pissing it down. For the first time on the trip we seriously want to go home, this is no fun at all! To our delight we get collared as soon as we arrive at the bus station by some little lady (who speaks the worlds fastest Spanish, it's true we saw the certificate on her wall) who is extremely keen to rip us off and dejectedly we oblige and stay in her dingey hotel. It appears that the only double room is seperate from the main cosy looking area. We go out for dinner and Stu goes for the chicken salad to pay homage to all things green and healthy (he has a beer as well of course) and return to our hotel where it's blowing about gale 14. The TV's really small as well. (What was that about whingeing poms someone mentioned in Melbourne again?) Lots of Love Stu & Amy.