Chile: Part Three

We woke up the next day, saw the sunrise on the volcano and over the lake, and headed towards Puerto Varas to check out the city there and get food for camping. The wall of different types of hot dogs in the store was unreal, ha!

The Wall of Hot Dogs!!!!!!!!!

We headed back out to Petrohue area, and went to the Saltos de Petrohue. Its’ maybe US $2 per person to get into the trails to the falls, and maybe $1 per 20 minutes you are parked, so lingering can add up. Here is where we really experience the horseflies for the first time, so lingering wasn’t a problem. When I say there were horseflies, I mean there were around ten flying around you at all times, sometimes more, sometimes slightly less, but they wouldn’t forget about you for long. Apparently they are only there in the month of January though, and not at all the rest of the year. Note to self….We headed on a wrong trail for a while, but it was very pretty, and we figured it out about 15 minutes in, and headed back towards the falls. The waterfalls and river flowing through all the small lava canyons was pretty impressive here. And the volcano loomed over the river here too, making it very picturesque. The horseflies were everywhere, and as a lady took our picture, I got scared she’d try to swat with the hand holding the picture and end up tossing my camera. Luckily she didn’t, and got a pretty good one of us, as we held still trying to not be bothered by the horseflies everywhere.

Chillin!

Jungle Jane

Drinkable

The source of the river

Saltos de Petrohue

Trying to hold still and not swat the horseflies

I thought the lady was going to throw our camera as she swatted horseflies while holding my camera

Real

Lago Petrohue, nicknames the Emerald Lake

We headed back up further into Petrohue, stopped and ate lunch, then headed towards our camp at Hospedaje Kuschel. We figured there was plenty of light left for the day, so we started to do a hike along Lago Todos Los Santos, towards the volcano, as we read it head impressive views. It was very pretty, but we only hiked in about 20 or 30 minutes before we were over swatting constantly at the horseflies (tabanos). We headed back, defeated, still swatting, and packed up to go camp. We had to take a boat across the river to the camp. “It’s our first boat in campground!” Mel squealed. We got over there, and set up our tent, swatting at the tabanos and gnats that would swarm occasionally. They were pretty bad, which was a shame because the lake and the site was absolutely beautiful, and was only $4,000 pesos ($8) for the campsite, which was anywhere you wanted along the large area near the lake. Fires were allowed also, but the bugs were so bad that we spent most of the evening in the tent to avoid the bugs. The lake, Lago Todos Los Santos, is nicknamed the emerald lake because the color of the water is so green and blue and clear. It was cold though so swimming would have been short-lived. A dog (assuming he belonged to the owner of the property) decided to spend the whole evening and night right outside our tent, so we went ahead and pretended he was ours; he was pretty awesome.

Think I've just noticed that these sunglasses look crooked in every photo with them...

"Our first boat-in campground!!"

View from the tent

We got up the next morning, the bug weren’t super bad, and the horseflies were maybe taking a while to wake up, although some were out. I watched the fish slurp at the surface of the lake everywhere. There were so many bugs on the surface of the water. I wished I could just cast out right there, as it would have been pretty easy it seemed; they were everywhere! We packed up, played fetch with “our” dog, and boated back across, enjoying the views. We dropped off our friend from France in Ensenada and we got some breakfast, and then drove the roads down to Ralun area and towards the beginning of the Carreterra Austral, wishing we were heading to Collin. We turned back after driving on gravel roads for quite a while, and then searched for Kuchen and came across someone selling it out of their house! Big score. This stuff was thick!

Morning view

Our dog

He was good at fetch

Worst thing we ever did was leave this guy

View down towards Ralun

Bridge leading down towards Carreterra Austral

We went to Puerto Varas ate got asparagus and corn pizza, and then went out to go white water rafting! Three full boats went out and we were with two Australians, two Germans, and two Argentineans, who were all pretty awesome. The other two boats were filled with Argentineans too, so I got to observe the subtle differences in Chileans and Argentineans. The rafting was awesome, through Ko Kayak. It was 30,000 pesos (60 bucks) per person for two hours actually on the raft, plus the instructions, and treats afterwards. The guides were awesome and the horseflies were plentiful. We were on Rio Petrohue and it was very consistent rapids (Class III-ish)! No big big drops, but awesome consistent rapids. Mel and I were smack dab up front and it was so much fun. At any given moment there were at least 50 or 60 horseflies around the raft/us, even in the rapids, but we were suited up so it was ok actually. We got to jump off a small cliff at one point and even float through some gentle rapids outside the raft, which was pretty awesome. When we got back to their base, they had pisco sours and cookies and chips waiting for us! Psyched!

Jacked!

First rapids with Mel up front, she liked it...

Most rapids were like this, which weren't the biggest, but it was non-stop and awesome

View coming down the river

Cannonballll!!!!!!!!

Going down!

Eeeeeeeeeeeee

Whoooooooooohoooooooooooo

Another view of the river and land

We headed up to camp in Frutillar area and ended up at a place in someone’s yard, which only cost $3,000 pesos per person (total of 12 bucks). We got up and headed to downtown Frutillar and walked around some until places opened up at 10ish. We got some coffee and after initially refusing Kuchen, we saw others get some and couldn’t resist. Apple and blueberry were our choices and they were incredible! Matt’s new favorite food!

Best ladder set up I've seen

Opera house on the water at Frutillar, Pretty awesome looking

Not the prettiest wood pile, but pretty large

Kuchen!!!!!!!

Then we walked around to some Artisanal shops, wishing we could get stuff back safely. We headed to Puerto Varas for the day and night, got some food, and ended at our place, Hostel Margouya. It was very colorful, with a friendly staff, and nice people staying there. We checked out the lake for a bit and got in some (again regretting I didn’t bring swimtrunks), and then headed back to relax and make food for the potluck that the hostel was organizing. Drinks were a plenty and the food was awesome. Ranging from stomppot (mashed potatoes, cabbage, and sausage), corn, salmon spread on crackers, rice and veggies, crepes, salad, fresh olives (Matt’s new new favorite food) tortellini, dulce de leche ice cream cake and - it was all awesome. Mel drank quite a bit a let her loud Chilean-ness come out, which was funny. We headed to the lake for fireworks at midnight with everyone and they were awesome. We headed back to the hostel to get a little bit of sleep before our early morning the next day.

Hi guys!

Stompott!

About to feast

Feasting

Partying!

Happy New Year!

There she is!!!!!!