Puerto Varas Day 204 10/04/2015

It was an early start to catch the bus to Puerto Varas. We opted for a 10 minute taxi ride to the bus station which arrived prompted at 7am (too early for breakfast at La Barraca!). The bus arrived shortly after we arrived at the station and we loaded our luggage, having to tip the guys for lifting our bags onboard, and settled down into our upstairs, front row seats. The tickets were quite expensive, much more than the trip from Chile to Argentina, and we wondered if we had been subject to Argentina's two-tier price system where by some hotels, parks and airlines amongst others have adopted double (or more) rates for foreigners. Still the bus was very comfortable and we set off initially north back to Villa La Angostura before we headed west to cross the boarder. The landscape was lovely with high peaks, forests, lakes and monkey puzzle trees which the area is famous for. You can actually get a series of buses and boats from Bariloche to Puerto Varas but at CH$140,000 each (c£140), and probably more going east to west, we thought it was a bit over our budget. The border point appeared to be used more frequently than the one further north (it had a sealed road all the way) and the checks both out of Argentina and into Chile were more rigorous with dogs searching the bus and belongings at both points. Despite improved relations between Chile and Argentina there is still a strip of 'no man's land' between the two countries. It's quite unnerving to be travelling through this area with no immigration papers! With the exception of Diane falling down the bottom steps of the bus, it was uneventful and we were soon on our way continuing west to Osorno before heading south to Puerto Montt where the bus terminated. Puerto Montt is the region's commercial and transport hub and is where we will board the ferry to Puerto Natales. Other than that it doesn't appear to have much going for it and we'd decided to stay a short distance away at Puerto Varas on the shore of Lago Llanquihue and under the shadow of two volcanos. We got the local bus from Puerto Montt, all a bit confusing as to which of several buses that all appeared to be going to Puerto Varas, would go first, but the driver of the one we boarded was very helpful and loaded our bags into the seat and space next to him at the front of the bus. We got off in the centro of Puerto Varas and walked to Casa Kalfu where we'd booked to stay, east along the shore line towards Puerto Chico. We later realised that we could have saved our legs by staying on the bus for a bit longer. We'd spotted a bakery and cafe on the corner of the street and, after checking in and dropping off our bags, headed there for a very healthy lunch before wandering along the shoreline into the town to see if we could find any maps of the area. We were both keen to go up to the snow line on Volcano Osorno however soon realised that there is no public transport up the access road from the local town Ensanda, and given we haven't got international driving licences with us ruling out car hire, we would need to go on an organised tour to get there. In the evening we went to a nearby gastro bar and both enjoyed pies (which are apparently called pies too in Spanish) - leek and veg for Diane and lamb's kidneys and peas for Simon - before heading back to the hotel. We got some good news from Tony at Trailfinders (who has been very helpful) and can delay our flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires with a small change fee. The not so good news was that the ferry has been delayed again, this time by one day and now departs on Tuesday. We decided to stay in Puerto Varas for the extra day in preference to packing up and travelling to Chiloe. The hotel is very nice and a good place to spend an extra day.  If the ferry gets delayed again we might have to rethink our plans as the refugios in Torres del Paine close at the end of April.

An early morning start 

Our bus to Puerto Montt