Puerto Montt

We pulled into Puerto Montt early Friday morning. It was a little overcast but the forecast predicted 25C so we were optimistic. . . we had a tour booked that took us past Puerto Varas to a lake between two volcanoes. One was Osorno Volcano and because it had only snowed the week before, it was beautifully capped with snow. Osorno is 2652m high and although it´s next to another volcano, the other one had errupted in the 70´s so Orsono looked much higher. Inbetween the volcano´s is Petrohue National Park and there is a lake that runs through that park which is run-off from the melting glaciers. The water is so beautiful, an emerald green and the lake is therefore called Lake Esmeralda. We did a one hour catameran ride around the lake and got tons of beautiful pictures. One of the weirdest things there though was a huge ring around the sun that was a greyish colour and then almost a rainbow around that ring. Although the landscape was beautiful, it was the strangest thing to see there and you couldn´t help but stare (as much as you could) and most of us took pictures. The ring is due to the whole in the ozone layer that exists and affects South America. In North America we hear about the hole, but it was really bizarre to actually see it. After the boat ride we got back on the bus and went to Petrohue Falls which is the same emerald water but after the last volcano erruption there is volcanic rock all through a certain area and the falls is where the water crashes over this black, yet pretty and sparkly, rock. It was really really beautiful . . . and at this point it´s about 30C with a beautiful blue sky so we were enjoying ourselves. The guide told us that it rains about 260 days a year and that was their first day of warm weather so far this spring. She said the snow the mountain received the week before was very out of the ordinary, actually the whole cruise, all the ports said that the weather in their areas was quickly changing and unpredictable. After the falls we went to have lunch at a real farm, overlooking Orsono volcano. This was a very rich farm (they had the best of both worlds, farming and tourism) where we enjoyed a wonderful salmon lunch with some *pisco sour* that we quickly realized we had a love for! After we walked around the farm where they had a whole bunch of Llama´s and Rheas. They had this little dog that would bark at the animals which sent the Rheas into a tizzy and would cause them to run around squaking . . it was hilarious! After lunch we were taken back to Puerto Varas which is the cutest city ever! It was right next to Lake Todos Los Santos and is also glacier run-off . . . honestly after living in Toronto for so long, I forgot what clean water looks like. You could see the bottom of the late as you drove along, although the deepest park of the lake was over 1,000m deep. . . .not for the faint of heart. Puerto Varas was mostly German immigrants coming over back in the early 1900´s and it felt very German . . . it was very cute though, only one major road and little stores and markets everywhere. Everything local and that´s nice as it feels more authentic then a giant Wal-Mart in the centre. Saturday we had a day at sea and that was amazing. It was 30C and there were no clouds. We laid up on the top deck, the pool was about 84F and the hot tub 98F so we just moved from pool to pool and then sunning ourselves. It was a perfect way to end the cruise! Today we got off the ship first thing (guaranteed we were the only ones with backpacks walking off the cruise ship) and grabbed a cab to Santiago from Valparaiso where the ship was. We arrived at our hotel and are heading out for an authentic Kruning walking tour . . . (you know you wish you were here for this AK) Having fun, weather is suppose to be 33C today and it feels hot!