It had been a bit difficult to work out what we were going to do in the South before arriving, what with me being in Buenos Aires, Daisy in her last week of work, and Laura already doing her own thing travelling down from Temuco to meet us upon our arrival. Ary had arranged for Laura to stay with a family down here, and her and the dad of the fam came to meet me and Dais at the airport. We had a lovely lunch waiting for us (immediately felt so at home - this family are just so sweet), and then set to working out what our plan would be.
3 hours later, no success. Seriously. We were reading the Lonely Planet and getting all excited, and then trying to take action and finding no information, calling people's homes because the codes in the book were wrong, and standardly nothing in Chile is online... The family came home after an afternoon out to some rather fed up and downcast faces. But then withing 10 minutes they had arranged for their son Felipe to drive us around for that evening and the next day. Within 10 minutes after that decision was made, we set off with all our stuff! It was literally the fastest turnaround imaginable. I couldn't help laughing out of the sheer amazingness of their generosity.
So we drove to Puerto Varas, where we got our first taste of the real German influence in the South, found a hotel, went out for a coffee and settled in for the night. Today Felipe met us at 9 and our insane day began.
We started our drive along the river with the most amazing views of the lake, which is so gigantic, with mountains around it and volcanoes too, the most outstanding being the Osorno Volcano, topped with snow. First stop was the Saltos de Petrohue - a waterfall of emerald green waters. The rocks were all volcanic; black and smooth in texture but formed in chunky shapes and molded by the waters around it.
Next, we drove on to the Lago de Todos Los Santos, the waterfall's source. I suppose I should point out that these areas are seriously untouched, and especially in the low season there was hardly anyone around. The nature was so astonishing, almost overwhelming. So when I say we went to a lake surrounded by forest and foliage, I mean that in really quite an intense way.. It's difficult to explain!! Maybe photos later will help! Either way, the presence of the looming volcano certainly helped with the sheer awesomeness of it all.
We went out on a boat with a local and went past a house owned by the head of the El Mercurio group, who apparently has one house for himself there, and one next door on his plot which he uses for all the models he brings there - the Chilean equivalent of the Playboy Mansion.
Then, we tried to head up the volcano, but it turned out that there had been a fatal accident the previous night and the volcano was shut while the rescue team and forensics brought down the body. Very tragic.
So we went and saw a lagoon - the greenest I had ever seen before, and then went to go and eat lunch.
I'd just like to point out that the time was at this point 1pm, but we'd done so much it felt like we were eating dinner.
As we drove back to the volcano to see if it was open again (which we were expecting it not to be, knowing Chilean authorities), some emergency vehicles drove past us leaving the site - a good sign (for us) which turned out to be accurate. So up we headed.
The day was gradually getting foggier and foggier, and as we drove up the volcano we entered into the clouds themselves, it felt, to the point where we could see hardly anything in front of us. But then, suddenly, we broke through and ended up on top of the clouds, with no view of anything beneath us, only a blanket of fluffy white. I cannot explain to you how incredible the views were. That and the fact that we were on a volcano!?
We then headed back round the lake to end up in our next stop, Frutillar.
Tomorrow we'll be here for lunch and then making the journey to the island of Chiloe... It's certainly kicked off to a very good start - a possibly unbeatbable day, but we've still got 4 days in the South and 3 and a half weeks after this to top it!
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Daisy and I are going to alternate blogging about this trip, so she'll be writing at the end of tomorrow - I'll be linking you up as we go.
XOX
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