Day 57-58 Isla Chiloé

We reached the Island of Chiloé from Puerto Montt on a 2 hours bus drive with Ferry. On the ferry we had a nice clear view over the snowy peaks of the Andes.

The Isla Chiloé is the first of many Islands going to the South of Chile. This is where we reach the end of the Panamericana, the symbol of the link of all South American countries. The local name for the Panamericana is Ruta 5. After this point, you have to take another ferry and reach the Carretera Austral, which is an unpaved road going further south.

As we reach this Island the "end-of-the-world" feeling is increasing...

... Even some common words seem to have different meanings here...

As you can see, here in Chile there is a strong campagne against violence towards women ...

We chose a great campsite with a sea view, and as the high season is coming to an end, we were the only ones!

The Isla Chiloé looks pretty much like Ireland, and is full of nice wooden houses. This is the last place in South America where the Spaniards were resisting the independence in 1826!

For our second day on the Island we went to a tour to see the pinguins. It is said to be the only place in the world where these 2 kinds of Pinguins meet: the Humboldts and the Magallanes, brought here from the North and South respectively by the oceans currents of the same name.

Like the rest of the Chilean cost, the morning starts with a depressing foggy day.

But after a couple of hours, the sun comes out and the temperature is very pleasant.

As Chiloé lives a lot from wool, we bought a few hand made items...

Finally, this is what we look like as we update the blog..... ;-)

Day 56 CHILE Puerto Montt

We are now back in Chile. Some of you may wonder why we crossed the border twice...but there's a good reason for it: Argentina is such a large country that it's easier to visit the towns near the andes (like Mendoza and Bariloche) departing from Chile. That is why we decided to go down the andes like this: Santiago - Mendoza- Bariloche - Puerto Montt.

Puerto Montt is just 6 hours from Bariloche and the border crossing at this point is very easy. This is how the border looks like. On the left there's the map of the region in Chile where we are now. The red road is the Panamericana, which reaches its end in this region.

From the bus we had amazing landscape views, like the Osorno Volcano in Chile:

Arriving to Puerto Montt we felt like we were finally approaching the end of the continent. The atmosphere is very relaxed, with a lot of boats and cruise ships going around and a beautiful background as you can see in the picture!
As there are no more direct roads going further South, all the ferries go all the way down to Fireland through the Fjords.

Being in the land of fish, we decided to have the typical food: sea shells. They are really big down here!

David always checks the notes, just in case! Here is a 10,000 Pesos Chilenos note. It is worth about 22 Dollars.

With full stomach, we were ready for a walk to see the sunset on the sea front...

Day 53-55 Bariloche

After 19 hours bus from Mendoza we reach the town of Bariloche. Although the whole journey is almost a desert, Bariloche is surrounded by great lakes and forests. As a matter of fact it is called the small Switzerland, is a very important ski centre and home to great food like fondue (really!) and of course "Parrillada Argentina" (argentinian grill) as on the picture!

To be even more in the European atmosphere we camped at the Swiss colony which was founded at the beginning of the centre by Swiss immigrants. The architecture is obviously influenced...

To save a bit of money, we decided to camp with our new tent we bought in Santiago.

We spent our first day in the village of Bariloche and at the ski station of Cerro Catedral.

The ski resort is just like being back in Europe! The altitude is just from 1000 to 2000m, but there seems to be a lot of snow in the winter.

We then had a pic-nic on a lakes side, from where we had a view on one of the best hotels in the Region.

The second day, we went hiking to the Refugio Cerro López at 1500m (ridiculous after the heights we reached in Bolivia, but still it was hard to get to!). The day was really hot (around 30C) but there was still some snow from the last winter. (remember the ski season here is July-August). The view over the lakes was amazing!!

Just before arriving to the Refuge we stopped at a snow bridge sculptured by a river. It was really impressive.

From the Refuge Lopez we had great views too.

From the refuge I went on to the cerro from where there was a good panorama on the wildest mountains! The large peak is Cerro Tronador (3500m) on the border, and the volcano in the distance is Volcan Osorno in Chile.