The Lake District

After crossing the border, we had to spend a bit of time heading back south to the airport - we'd looked into flights to Puerto Montt from El Calafate but they were pricey and slow as they went to Buenos Aires or Santiago with bad connections before heading where we wanted to go so we opted for the much cheaper option - the bus! 

We arrived in Puerto Varas to clouds, drizzle and cold!  We'd planned to go zip-lining however it wasn't conducive with the weather so we explored a nearby town. The whole area was colonised by the Germans so there's a lot of German architecture, street names and beer around the place which is kinda funny. 

We then headed up to Pucon, the self-proclaimed adventure capital of Chile for some adrenaline filled activities. Shannon was still keen to do some zip-lining however we struggled to find a tour operator who was running any trips while we were there :( Instead we ended up at some hot springs (17 thermal pools with temperatures ranging from 35 to 45 degrees Celsius). It was a lovely way to pass the afternoon/evening, particularly as there was some fabulous people watching :) 

The following day, we took a bus to Parque Nacional Huerqueque for a 16km hike to see some beautiful lakes & cascades. It was a gorgeous hike though no one mentioned that we'd be climbing above the snowline into very muddy and rather mucky terrain. We got some great pics and giggled on the way down at some of the footwear people had on for the hike - they were also unaware of the conditions :) 

It poured on our last day in Pucon so we spent the day hanging out at the hostel, enjoying the unlimited wifi and warm fire before we caught our night but to Valparaiso. We'd bought "living room" seats for the journey - they were huge seats which pretty much reclined fully, blankets, pillows and breakfast in the morning. It was pretty fancy and I think I even slept a bit! 

Take care!

Sarah