Puerto Montt and the Lake District

In my mind I've organized this trip as a book: a few days in Santiago as the prologue; Antarctica was chapter 1; Torres del Paine was chapter 2; Tierra del Fuego was chapter 3; this leaves us with a two-day layover in Puerto Montt as the epilogue.

We weren't expecting much here. Really we're only here because the logistics of flight connections in Santiago meant we had to wait two days for the flight to Toronto and I figured we may as well explore somewhere new rather than kill another few nights in the big city. Furthermore, we're pretty weary after a while on the road. Finally, I hadn't heard anything from our Puerto Montt tour operator since I booked it early last year (without paying any deposit) so we thought they might have forgotten about it. It turns out we were wrong and our layover in Puerto Montt was a pleasant conclusion to the trip.

Off the start we encountered a personal first: a female taxi driver. Jessica and I have traveled around the world, for business and for pleasure, separately and together, and neither of us can recall ever having a female taxi driver. (Must resist the urge to make sexist joke about female drivers...) Next, lovely hotel with spacious room with an ocean view and good internet access. Best of all: tour operator hadn't forgotten us and had scheduled a late 10AM start. (We've had a few 5AM starts on this trip and another would not have been welcome.)

Our guide Liliana showed up the next day in a large SUV and gave us a relaxing driving tour of Puerto Montt, Puerto Vera (which, owing to its roots with German settlers, is a Bavarian town in the middle of Chile - unexpected), then onward into the Lake District. The weather held up yet again as we had a hot day with beautiful views of Osorno Volcano.

A few stops at waterfalls and lakes later, we headed up the volcano and rode the world's slowest chairlift to near the summit. (Our bad luck with both weather and mountains seems to have changed this trip. Go figure.)

When Liliana dropped us off back in Puerto Montt, she said bade farewell to Jessica saying "Next time you come here, you must come with a baby!" Ummmm, yeah...

Tomorrow we start the two day journey back to Calgary. Having only slept in my own bed maybe ten times in the last two months, I'm ready for home.

(Written on Jan 3.)