Chilean Patagonia and Lake District

Our first  stop in Chile is Puerto Arenas which  seemed rather a non descript sort of town with the standard main square surrounded by various grand looking buildings. Lonely Planet lists the municipal cemetery as the top sight! Instead we visited the surprisingly interesting regional museum which is a flashy mansion of late 19th century pioneer sheep farmers. The house contained a series of rooms containing French style furniture and ornaments of the wealthy. We learnt that one of the meanings of Patagonia was "big foot" which was currentlly very apt as John struggled to prise his feet into the little cloth shoe covers that we had to wear in the museum.

Next stop was Puerto Varas which is also known as City of Roses. It certainly did have roses lining the streets and beautiful Lake Llanquihue, which made it far more pretty than most towns we have recently visited.

Nearby Frutilla, which was founded in 1856 by German settlers was even more quaint with its pretty German and alpine style buildings. We did the main things to do here which was to visit the interesting German heritage museum, look at the lake and most importantly eat yummy German cake.

Puerto Montt , is the capital of the Lake District and at the southern end of the pan American highway is our last stop in Patagonia. Although a more industrialised town due to being a working port and a gateway for much of the rest of Patagonia, we enjoyed exploring this larger town. A huge array of artisan stalls line the waterfront and at one end you can smell the fish market and its vast array of tiny cabins and cafes selling delicious freshly caught cod and salmon.

Puerto Montt is also a viewing point for 3 huge volcanoes, one of which erupted just 5 years or so ago. Although we did think we saw smoke rising from the top of one, fortunately there were no signs of eruption during our time here.

This is our last stop in Patagonia, so to sum up our impressions of this region: vast, rapidly  changing landscapes, beautiful lakes, ice capped mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, fjords, forests, wildlife, penguins, cold, beautiful and finally magical.