February 21 - Pucon to Puerto Varas

Heading further south today to Puerto Varas (just north of Puerto Montt.  Four hours on the bus.

In spite of the room size and creaky floor boards at 'ecole' we did enjoy our stay there.   The staff, especially Andre, was great.  Ask for a twin room instead of a double - the rooms are bigger so they can get two beds and walking space into the room.

Laura said goodbye to her buddy before we left.  She (me too, I admit) gave him a tidbit of cheese, so he is a friend for life.  A lot of the street dogs are like that - any attention and you have a buddy.

The bus ride was unremarkable and uneventful.  We got into Puerto Varas and easily found our B&B.

It's the upstairs of a house run by an Austrian (?) Spanish couple.  He also runs a fly fishing lodge and he's out there right now.

Nice house and room.  I can hold my arms out and not touch both walls!  It's also quite a bit more expensive than 'ecole' but hang the expense, it's Laura's turn to pay.

Plaza de Armas downtown.

 The hotel strip along the waterfront.

A wooden church built in the early 1900's.  It is now a national monument.  There is a sign in the entrance saying that throwing rice, petals, or other things at weddings is prohibited because of its special status.

 Inside the church.


















The local railway station and a very old locomotive water filling station.  I don't know if the railway is still in use - we're close enough to it that I will hear any trains.

 We are still in the Lakes and Volcanoes region of Chile.  I took these from our restaurant.  We watched them as the sun went down and the shadows moved up the mountains.  Volcan Orsorno, also known as the Mount Fuji of Chile.






Below is Volcan Calbuco

And this one, further away might be Volcan Yates, or Volcan Tronador.  Not sure - I'll see if I can figure it out.

We're off in the direction of V. Osorno tomorrow to do some hiking.  We also want to arrange a trip to another national park to look at the Alerce trees there.

 

Rick - I don't know what type of gees those were in yesterday's blog.  Would you ask Kye for us - he's better with birds than I am.