Puerto Varas (German food, canyoning, and a bit of rain)

So these last few days have been filled with German pastries, lake and volcano vistas, raging waters, amazing Chilean food, and well tons of rain and fog. After leaving Valapariso, we took a night bus to Puerto Varas, which is a cute little town in the Lakes District. It has a lot of German influences (we don't ask why- =p ), and the towns in the area actually remind me a lot of New England seaside towns. Only they are lakes... And it's in Chile...

The first day we got there, it was incredibly sunny, with views of not one but 2 classic looking snow-capped volcanos on the other side of the lake. We walked around, enjoyed seeing dogs playing together on the beach and climbed a nearby hill that had a cross at the top. I really enjoyed the new, but very familiar flora and fauna of the area. It's a temperate forest with all the species diversity, green, and blooming spring flowers that a forest would have in the Tri-State area. A bit like home if you will.

We also went to a small town called Fruitillar, which has a LOT of German influence. It's an artsy little town along a soft sand beach with German pastries and even a Lutheran Church! Don't worry, everyone here still speaks Spanish so we could still fumble our way through conversations. Our favorite part was finding these 2 birds that were loud, caused a ruckus, were beautiful and had wonderful personalities! The Southern Lapwing and the black throated ibis.

The next day, we went CANYONING at a nearby national park. http://www.tourspachamagua.com/. Let me tell you, it was amazing! They dressed us up in full body suits, gloves, shoes, hood, helmet, the works and then hiked us up to this gorgeous fast moving, clear rockbed river surrounded by temperate rainforest. Then the purpose of canyoning is to slide, jump, swim, and even rappel down the river until you get to the bottom. Wow! It was so much fun! Heart pumping and sometimes a little disconcerting, but wow, fun! Mike was basically on cloud 9 or even cloud 10 ha!, and said that this is one of the most fun things he has ever done in his life! But let me tell you, the water was freezing! However, after a bit of acclimitizing to the water and letting our wetsuits do their thing, we were just fine. At the end of the adventure, there were a 300 ft drop off where a beautiful waterfall made its way down. To get there, we had to jump 30 ft into a pool of water, then rappell next to this rather large waterfall, then jump about 40 feet into the lower pool. Just fantastic. I think we are hooked.

After that, we went moved hostels to Ensenada (a small town near a national park). After a lunch filled with the best Chilean food we have tasted, we headed on a bus to the national park. Unfortunately, it was raining and worse, the fog made it so we couldn't see a darned thing out on the lake. I found a dog that was very cute, but he was just a bit too friendly. In a playful way, he just kept jumping up and giving me bear hugs. This is cute fine and dandy when you are in a home or at least the dog is somewhat clean. This dog lives by lakes, rivers, and mountains all day, free to roam as he chooses. Let's just say, my jacket didn't stay all that clean.... Once we got rid of the dog, we went on a 5-6 km hike along some wickedly fast, snow fed, torquiose rapids that flowed out of the lake. It was just beautiful, but the piercing rain and hail made it challenging in parts.

We ran out of time that day to get to these waterfalls that were supposed to be the end of the hike. So we went back the next day to see them and do a bit more hiking. Unfortunately, the park rangers were on strike and we could only look through the gates! Ah, traveling!

Now we are in Porto Montt (a transportation hub town) and will be going to Chiloe (a northern Patagonian island with penguins!!!) It will be rainy and cold, I just hope we can see stuff. Especially penguins!!!