Santiago to Puerto Varas
Our vacation started with a 12.5 hour bus ride to Puerto Varas. This isn't quite so torturous as it sounds. Most Chileans opt for bus travel over the more expensive in-country flights, and the buses are pretty comfortable. Our mid-class tickets scored us "semi-cama" seats (a ton of leg room, and 60% recline), a sweet view (we were in the front of the top deck of the bus) and a mediocre breakfast. Although it seemed really long to Jennifer, by Chilean standards a 12.5 hour bus ride is pretty much nothing. When you get up to more than 24 hours, that's it starts to get impressive...
Our friend Debbie went with us. Jen met her in the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class they took together so they would be qualified to teach for DuocUC.
We arrived in Puerto Varas (about 615 miles south of Santiago, and about 15 miles north of Puerto Montt, as seen on this map -- look for "The Lake District" and "Ancud Gulf" to find Puerto Montt) and wandered around the heavily German-influenced town. Puerto Varas sits on the edge of Lago Llanquihue, with a beautiful view of the lake and Volcán Osorno.
After about two hours in town, I got a call... from Jim, my boss at the
hospital. A server had crashed, and they needed me to fix it. But, thanks to the ubiquitous internet "cafe" (which in this case was actually kind of a hole in the wall), and with the help of a fabulous Microsoft engineer, we were able to get the server back up and running within about three hours. And the good news is that this was the only time anything went wrong at work while we were away.
The three of us really lucked into it Friday evening. Pto Varas is trying to establish itself as one of the major tourist hubs in the Lake District. In what is probably part of this effort, the city arranges different events during the Jan-Feb tourist season. We happened to see a big tent that was erected near our hostel, and when we went to check it out, we discovered that the Primera Gala Gastrónmica Ovina was being held. For about $10, we got a n all-we-could-eat buffet of lamb dishes from the about 15 of the area's most prestigious (and fanciest) restaurants, as well as wine and a wine glass to take with us. The food was fantastic, and Debbie even won a drawing for a free lunch at one of the local upscale hotels (alas, we had to leave before she could collect).
Saturday, we went on an excursion to the other side of Lago Llanquihue to four places, all inside the Parque Nacional Vincente Pérez Rosales: Lagos Todos Los Santos (the Lake of All Saints), the Saltos del Petrohué ("jumps" or waterfalls, and pronounced Petro-hwey, or if you are Jen, Petro-hooey), Laguna Verde and Volcán Osorno. This was only the first of many under-dressed vacation
days for Jen. We were told that one of the lakes we were visiting was quite warm, and "que rico" for swimming. So... Jen dressed in capris and we all brought our suits. Alas, the lake was cold, and when part two of the trip took us up a ski lift over the snow line on Volcán Osorno, other riders laughed as she floated by in her totally inappropriate shorts.
If you want to get a better look at the pictures on Flickr, you can click on the "All Sizes" button, and choose "Large" for the highest resolution image. More pictures are coming soon...
Jason
Our friend Debbie went with us. Jen met her in the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class they took together so they would be qualified to teach for DuocUC.
We arrived in Puerto Varas (about 615 miles south of Santiago, and about 15 miles north of Puerto Montt, as seen on this map -- look for "The Lake District" and "Ancud Gulf" to find Puerto Montt) and wandered around the heavily German-influenced town. Puerto Varas sits on the edge of Lago Llanquihue, with a beautiful view of the lake and Volcán Osorno.After about two hours in town, I got a call... from Jim, my boss at the
hospital. A server had crashed, and they needed me to fix it. But, thanks to the ubiquitous internet "cafe" (which in this case was actually kind of a hole in the wall), and with the help of a fabulous Microsoft engineer, we were able to get the server back up and running within about three hours. And the good news is that this was the only time anything went wrong at work while we were away.The three of us really lucked into it Friday evening. Pto Varas is trying to establish itself as one of the major tourist hubs in the Lake District. In what is probably part of this effort, the city arranges different events during the Jan-Feb tourist season. We happened to see a big tent that was erected near our hostel, and when we went to check it out, we discovered that the Primera Gala Gastrónmica Ovina was being held. For about $10, we got a n all-we-could-eat buffet of lamb dishes from the about 15 of the area's most prestigious (and fanciest) restaurants, as well as wine and a wine glass to take with us. The food was fantastic, and Debbie even won a drawing for a free lunch at one of the local upscale hotels (alas, we had to leave before she could collect).
Saturday, we went on an excursion to the other side of Lago Llanquihue to four places, all inside the Parque Nacional Vincente Pérez Rosales: Lagos Todos Los Santos (the Lake of All Saints), the Saltos del Petrohué ("jumps" or waterfalls, and pronounced Petro-hwey, or if you are Jen, Petro-hooey), Laguna Verde and Volcán Osorno. This was only the first of many under-dressed vacation
days for Jen. We were told that one of the lakes we were visiting was quite warm, and "que rico" for swimming. So... Jen dressed in capris and we all brought our suits. Alas, the lake was cold, and when part two of the trip took us up a ski lift over the snow line on Volcán Osorno, other riders laughed as she floated by in her totally inappropriate shorts.If you want to get a better look at the pictures on Flickr, you can click on the "All Sizes" button, and choose "Large" for the highest resolution image. More pictures are coming soon...
Jason
