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Wow! What a great day in Puerto Varas. We got up around 6am to get everyone ready to get to the bus stop at the end of the road at 7:20. It started out very overcast and a bit foggy. Mist was rising off the grass and flowers as we walked down the road. It was absolutely beautiful. A couple of buses later we were in Puerto Varas(PV). It was almost 9am and very little was open. Most shops open around 10-ish so we had some time to walk around the center of town.

It’s really easy to get around downtown PV. It’s only about about 10-15 blocks long and wide and Lake Llanquihue is always close. We found the only restaurant that was open, Cafe Dane’s, which is known for their large portions and their empanadas. After a nice big breakfast there, we went down through some tourist shops, through the Plaza de Armas, and then finally down to the water front and what they call a beach. The beach is a bit dirty and brown, but the kids took to it quickly and had a blast. Before we knew it they were soaked and they got down to their underwear and t-shirts.

We ended up staying at the beach for a couple of hours. The clouds that started our day burned off and we soon found our selves on a picture perfect day in Southern Chile. Berry met a girl from Holland via Canada who was heading down to Antarctica. She’s well on her way to visit all seven continents before she’s 30. She just has two more left, Africa and Australia. I ended up renting a canoe and taking both kids out on the lake. It was a blast.

We left the beach then grabbed some fantastic chocolate. We consumed about $6 worth of chocolate in less than a minute. After that we figured out we were all ravenous. We grabbed lunch at a nice place just down from the beach. We met some more people from Holland and Spain. Graham talked with them for quite some time. It was a nice afternoon. We tried a new beer called Kross that we heard good things about from Bradley. Their Mai Bock is absolutely fantastic.

By the time we finished lunch it was almost time to leave to catch our bus back to the campo. We walked quickly through some more markets and stopped by Cafe Dane’s again to grab apple strudel and empanadas for breakfast and dinner the next day (the apple strudel was delectable by the way). We grabbed the bus back to Puerto Montt. After a little bit of a wait we caught the bus back to campo, the Calbuco Por Costa. It was a Friday afternoon and the last bus that goes through the campo so it was jam packed with families, grandparents, workers, and gringos (the Bumble Bees and us).

It was such a great fun day for our family and we plan to make more trips around PV and the surrounding lakes. Berry and I are planning to try to climb Volcano Osorno later this summer. When we go we’ll definitely let you know about our adventures.

Chao!

UPDATE: Here is Berry’s version of the day.