We arrived in Puerto Varas, a town on the shore of the Llanquihue lake. On the advice of the person manning the reception of our hostel, we went to a small hill nearby and got a great view of several volcanoes that surround the lake.

The day after, we went down to Puerto Montt to pick up a rental car and immediately headed to the nearby National Park. We visited the Saltos de Petrohué, a series of rapids and small waterfalls of the Petrohué river. Afterwards, we drove to the nearby Osorno volcano. Once parked, we took a chair-lift and then walked up to a beautiful viewpoint.

The day after, we drove North. We stopped in Frutillar for a short visit and to eat some kuchen (a kind of cake that comes from Germany) at Kuchenladen because we got very good recommendation for this one specific place. It was good!

We continued North to lake Puyehue. We stopped for a short hike and a rest in some hot-springs. Afterwards we went to Entre Lagos for the night.

We continued North to Pucon. This town is very much geared towards outdoors/adventure tourism: there are many shops advertising rafting, climbing, kayak, etc. We went to one of those shops to register for an ascent of the Villarica volcano the day after. We spent the rest of the day resting and strolling in the town.

At the hostel, we didn’t get to sleep very well because of noise, but we still got up very early, walked to the tour organiser, picked-up the gear (gas-mask, helmet, ice-shoes, ice-axe, waterproof overhauls, etc.) and got into the van. After a longish drive, we arrived at the base of the volcano. We started the ascent with a short chair-lift. Then we went on foot. It was difficult because of the altitude and the ground: unstable volcanic rocks and ice.

When we got to the top, we had a very good view of all the mountains around. We didn’t stay long because of safety regulations – even though the volcano wasn’t very active and it barely smelled of sulphur.

For the way down, we used luges! It was amazing: beautiful views of nearby lakes and volcanoes, speed, excitement! It was also way less tiring than walking and we were glad for that.

We stayed in Pucon for another day. But we were very tired so we didn’t do much apart from strolling in town and eating ice-cream.

The day after, we drove to Valdivia. This town is a bit out of the main circuit that backpackers follow. I had to use more Spanish as I couldn’t resort to English.

In town, along the river, there is a fish market. The fish merchants throw the guts, heads, etc. of the fish back in the river directly. And, ready to get all that fishy goodness, there are sea-lions hanging around. We spent a lot of time watching them.

In the evening, we went out for food and we tried some of the beers brewed in Valdivia. The brewery is called Kuntsman and, as the name might suggest, it was established by German settlers (who also brought the recipe for the aforementioned Kuchen).

The day after, we drove back to Puerto Montt, returned the rental car, took an overnight bus to Santiago, then a shuttle to the airport, a flight to Calama, and a shuttle to the nearby San Pedro de Atacama. We were exhausted from all that travel – more than 2400km all in all.

From San Pedro, we went on several tours to the nearby desert. On the first day, we went to visit several lakes around. The guide told us about the different minerals and metals that give strange shades to the lakes, about the different birds that live there (including flamingos, but we only saw them from far away), etc. We also got to see a lot of vicuñas: wild animals of the same family as llamas, alpacas, and guanacos.

The day after, we went onto another tour. I ended up providing translation from Spanish to the other people on the tour: an Australian couple there on holiday. The guide drove us to the Cejar del Salta, a small lake that is as salty as the Dead Sea. We floated around and moved somewhat but kind of ineffectually. Afterwards, we went to another nearby lake where our guide, a geologist by training, gave us a lot of information about the mining activity of the region, the formation of the volcanoes and salt-flats, and the living rocks: rocks in which million year-old bacteria are trapped. Finally, as part of the tour, we took an aperitif at sunset.

On our last full day in San Pedro, we rented bikes and cycled to the nearby Valle de la Luna. Between the altitude and the very uneven ground, we didn’t make it to the end of the valley. But we still got to see some impressive desert landscape.

And then, the day after, at dawn we got into a van that is taking us to Bolivia. And that’s for the next post!