So we had a night chilling out in Puerto Natales before getting a bus and flight up to Puerto Montt, the gateway to the Chilean lake district. Industrial, grotty and not very pretty but we had something to eat and booked our bus out of there for the next morning. Can't complain about hostel pacifico though, cable tv, wifi in rooms, clean, comfy beds, good shower and brekkie for the princely sum of £38.
Annoyingly I noticed that my card has been cloned whilst checking the finances. They had tried to put almost £4k through, bit greedy! Thankfully my sensible husband had suggested we get FX mastercards before leaving home - pre loaded from your debit card and you're not charged for using it abroad. Mine only had £200 on it so the greedy b*****s didn't get what they wanted. There is one dubious entry thats gone through, we think from our expensive hotel in Las Torres. They tried to over charge us and others on check out so it wouldnt surprise me. Anyway my card's now cancelled so we will just use G's now.
On thursday we headed to Castro on the islands of Chiloe. An archipelago just off the coast of Chile where time has stood still and everything is made of wood! Historically they were very isolated and only had wood to build with, no metal or concrete. Its a lovely place and it was nice to be somewhere a little off the tourist trail. Our hotel was a refurbished palafito (fishermans house built on stilts in the water). It has been done brilliantly and was very boutiquey and within budget :-)
We did a tour around some of the Unesco protected churches on one of the quieter islands, all are in the style of european churches, just made of wood! The countryside reminded me of home and the weather was like a warm summers day, perfect. We stopped for lunch in a local restaurant. Salmon farming is a huge industry here and the shellfish is some of the best in the world so I was happy (and full up!) The typical island dish is Curanto, seafood meat and dumplings which used to be cooked in the ground. G tried it and was a bit dumbstruck when it arrived - mussels the size of his hand and clams not much smaller!
So today, Saturday, we left our simple life behind and have spent 10 hours on buses to Pucon. Its G's birthday tomorrow so we wanted to have a free day.
We have four nights here, where we hope to climb the active Villaricca volcano, before heading across the Andes back to Argentina. So far, so good - nice hostel, well more like hotel really, and cool town with lots of bars for those crazy young fools ( and us)!!!
Can not believe we have been away for over a month already x