The Lake District

Here is a follow up post, written by both Ariana and Eva this time. We are not completely sure which region is actually called the Lake District, but we saw Temuco as the starting point for it. It is actually located in a region called Araucania, after a rare tree that is present in the area. We wanted to visit a national park that contains that tree, but when we reached Temuco we realized soon that is was Sunday.. Everything was closed! It was like a ghost town, there was no one outside except for one other lost tourist and a dog.. We couldn't reach the park because there were no busses and no tourist trips that day. We decided to go to another park in the city, one that we could reach. It is called Cerro Nielol. From there we had a nice view over the city and we had lunch watching locals exercise on training machines in the park. When we walked back, we found there were many more busses nearby that we could take to Pucon, so we never visited the Araucaria tree park but we continued immediately to Pucon.

Pucon is a very German town; the entire lake district has many German influences due to some German settlers years ago. You see 'kuchen' and 'strudel' everywhere and many of the houses have a German look with lots of wood. Pucon is located next to a lake and a vulcano, which makes for a beautiful scenery. We had some difficulty finding a hostel; we have become very good in finding the wrong place for a hostel in a town and walking around with a heavy backpack for too long.. In the end we found a very busy hostel with narrow corridors.

In the evening we looked at the tours you can do in Pucon. The city is mostly famous for its adventure activities, so we saw things like rafting, wild water kayaking, climbing the volcano and canyoning. With great difficulty we decided to go on a canyoning tour the day after. In the morning we went to the agency, we put on our gear (wetsuit, helmet etc.) and we were brought to a river along and through which we walked for some time. To be able to follow the river, we had to do abseiling a couple of times and we could slide of a natural slide along the river as well. It was definitely an adventure though a bit cold at times!

The next morning we took a minivan to the Huerquehue national park. Here we did a nice day walk to Lago Verde (many lakes are called like this, I think we have seen at least five Lago Verdes), we went through green forests, passed a big waterfall and ended at a beautiful aquamarine lake. Unfortunately we did not have the time to walk any further as we had to catch the bus back to Pucon. In Pucon we had to catch a bus to Valdivia, the next city we wanted to go to!

Valdivia is located at the Chilean coast, close to several rivers. It's also close to several lakes, but it is located in a region called 'Los Rios' (or 'The Rivers') so it's not really a part of the Lake District. After arriving at the bus terminal of Valdivia we again followed Ariana's amazing direction skills to the center of the town. Unfortunately they weren't so amazing this day (but every other day they are!) and we had to track back. After all, we ended up at a nice small hospedaje  and walked around the city for a bit. The next morning we walked along the water, saw some sea lions and had breakfast next to the water. Afterwards we took a collectivo to Niebla, a cute coastal town with an old Spanish fort (under construction..). There we took a ferry to Corral, an island that contains the largest and most intact Spanish fort. We made a nice walk around the fort and later the town, though most shops were closed and we couldn't find much food. In the end Eva ordered an 'Italiano', which appeared to be a hotdog, and due to our excellent Spanish she accidentally got two! At two o'clock we took the ferry back to Niebla where Ariana had some empanadas and then with the bus back to Valdivia. There we walked around the city, had some ice cream and went back to the hospedaje.

The next morning we started the last day of 2015! We travelled to Puerto Montt as we wanted to spend New Year's Eve here. Unfortunately, when we arrived we had the same problem as in the last few cities; we tried to find a hostel in an area of the center where there are almost none, while we had just walked right past the part where there are many! So when we finally found a hospedaje we were tired and had hurting backs from our heavy backpacks. Soon we were fine again and ready to explore Puerto Montt. It is located next to a lake (definitely Lake District this time). There were many small street shops and they all sold new year celebration stuff. Of course we wanted to experience the Chilean tradition, and thus we bought yellow underwear, confetti poppers and glitter hair and hats. The afternoon we spend lying under a tree with some fresh fruit from the market. When it got cold we went back to the hospedaje to prepare for the New Year's Eve celebration.

We knew that there would be music at the main square from 10 to 12, and that there would be fireworks at 12, and then music again. So at half past 9 we walked to the main square, where there was a stage and some small shops with more New Year stuff and a bit of food. We had cotton candy and barbecued meat, and then we met an American guy who was really happy to see tourists that spoke English. He lived in Puerto Montt as a part of his airforce career. He invited us for a drink in a cafe at the corner and we sat there together for about an hour. He was really enthusiastic and happy and joking all the time. He did warn us that the area we had our hostel was really bad and we had to promise him to take a taxi back there after the celebration (why do we keep ending up in dangerous areas??). He told us about his flights where he saw whales from his plane and then he had to get to a friend. We joined the music at the main square at that moment. It was typical Chilean music, although it looked a bit Wild West-style to us. The guys were dressed up as some sort of cowboys and they were singing to guitar music. It was funny to watch, we even danced a local dance to it! And then it was almost 12, almost 2016!
10 .. 9 .. 8 .. 7 .. 6 .. 5 .. 4 .. 3 .. 2 .. 1 ... Happy New Year!

2016 started with an awesome 20 minute firework show above the lake. Afterwards, there was music again. This time it was another band, here the main singer was a man with a strange voice saying arrrriba all the time. Again, funny to watch ;)! The crowd was getting a bit looser as well so many people were dancing. At about 1 o'clock, we went back to the hostel.

The first day of 2016 we filled by going to Puerto Varas, another town located next to a lake, very close to Puerto Montt. The German influence was very clear here too. Since it was the first of January, everything was closed. We hadn't really taken this into account, so we didn't have any food and it took us quite a while to get a lunch together. We had to go to two different (expensive) restaurants were some food was served. We couldn't really do any of the tourist activities, so we just walked around the city and relaxed on the lake shore and in the hostel. Dinner was just as difficult; more restaurants were open now, but all the tourists had to eat (it's a very touristic town) and all  supermercados were still closed, so all restaurants were full. Eventually, after some waiting, we got a table that we shared with an Englishman.

In Chile, the 2nd of January is a national holiday and people do take advantage of their holidays. So also the next day many things were still closed. Luckily, we did find a guy who was still offering tours to waterfalls and one of the lakes nearby. Since we were his only costumers that day, he took his wife and two daughters along on the trip! We had a really nice day. First we stopped in a park with a nice view on the Osorno volcano, a llama and a  children playground. Then we stopped at beautiful Lago Verde, where we had lunch. After that we went to very nice waterfalls, called Petrohué falls. Our last stop was Lago Todos Los Santos, where we made a boat tour. Along the way we stopped at nice viewpoints as well. That afternoon we had to be back in Puerto Varas to leave the Lake District and catch the bus to Ancud, a town on Isla Grande de Chiloé, about which I'll tell you more in the next post!

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