Me he enamorado de Chile de nuevo

Me he enamorado de Chile de nuevo.....I've fallen in love with Chile again. And you'll see why in the pictures!


So, as I mentioned in my last post (see this), I spent 8 days in the South of Chile in mid-December. Here's a map so you know where I'm talking about.

First, we took an overnight bus ride of about 10 hours to Valdivia and stayed for 2 nights. The day we arrived, we walked around the town and explored near the river that goes through the city (Rio Valdivia). We took a bus not too far away to go to the Kuntsmann beer factory. I drank and beer and ate some delicious German food.

Río Valdivia

at the Kuntsmann factory

Later that day, we went on a boat tour around the area. Valdivia is in the Region de Los Rios (River Region).

The following day, we took a bus about an hour away to a small town called Niebla. There, we visited the fort and enjoyed the scenery. The fort was built in 1645.

Fort in Niebla

Niebla

in Niebla

The next day, we left for Puerto Varas. Puerto Varas is a cute little town that sits on Lago Llanquihue. The town has a cute German feel to it. You can see Volcan Osorno on the other side. It's a gorgeous view. The first day we were there, we ran into Mel and Rad. It rained a bit and was kind of cold, so we walked around a little and mostly stayed inside and ate and drank.

Church in Puerto Varas

Kuchen and a beer. yum.

Lake Llanquihue in Puerto Varas. Volcán Osorno in the background

The next day, we took a bus for about an hour to Petrohué  to see the lake, Lago de Todos Los Santos (All Saints Lake), and the Saltos de Petrohué  (waterfalls). Absolutely gorgeous. Definitely my part of the trip I think. The pictures really don't do it justice.

Volcán Osorno

Lago Todos Los Santos

Saltos de Petrohue

After we left Puerto Varas, we were on our way to Chiloé, Chile's biggest island. We went to a bigger city towards the north of the island and stayed there for 3 days. We had to take a ferry over to the island- a new experience for me. Ancud was kind of a cute town. Apparently, before the earthquake and tsunami of 1960, it was an even more successful town. There isn't much to do in the city of Ancud, but we did go to a fort that was built in 1770. We also ate a food famous in Chiloé- it's called curanto. It's got mussels, clams, sausage, potatoes, and some kind of dough thing. It was....interesting.

on a boat

Fort in Ancud

Curanto

Ancud

One day trip that we took was about an hour drive through the hills in the west side of the island to see PENGUINS. We weren't allowed to get out of the boat to get closer to them, but we still got a pretty good look. 

Penguins!

Another day trip was to Castro and a nearby island...a trip of about 3 hours. Castro is known for the houses on stilts...called palafitos. The other island we went to is called Achao. There, we saw the oldest church on the island of Chiloé, built in 1740.

Palafitos in Castro

Church in Achao

After leaving Chiloé, our last stop was a town called Frutillar. Frutillar is a bit north of Puerto Varas and also sits on Lake Llanquihue. This town is also very cute and has a German feel to it. We were only there for about 7 hours so we walked around (not much to it) and enjoyed the beach and the view of the lake. That night we were back on a bus to Santiago. 

Lake Llanquihue in Frutillar. Volcán Osorno in the background.