Back into Destination 18, CHILE!
 
Day 1 - 3: Across the 'Samore Pass' in the Andes back into Puerto Montt, Chile, destination 18!
 
It seemed weird to be saying good bye to this country so soon after we had arrived but it was good to know that we would be back in a few weeks! Heading out to the bus station we boarded our bus set for Puerto Montt in Chile across the stunning Samore Pass . Leaving Bariloche, the bus continued around the east of the lake for over an hour highlighting even more how vast the lake was, just incredible! A sweet old lady in front of us was describing to us in Spanish the area and I could pick up a few words which I was pleased with, although my first attempt at asking her where she was from in Spanish ended up with me having to repeat it 3 times so she could understand me, think I will leave it up to Adam from now on to do the Spanish thang!
 
On route we passed through another beautiful wooden swiss style ski resort, 'Villa La Angostura,' along with many gorgeous hotels and mansions, there really is some money in this area, some of the houses were just incredible! The drive was stunning and nearer to the border we passed one of the 'seven lakes, 'Lagos Especho, and could instantly see, with the Andes mirrored within it how amazing that drive must be, without doubt this is definitely an area we know we will come back to lots in our lifetime if we can!
 
Leaving Argentina went smoothly and soon we were in 'no mans land' for about 17km driving through the Samore Pass . It seemed so weird to think that this wilderness area of beautiful snow capped mountains was not owned by man, which gave you an incredible feeling of being lost, just like we had felt on other border crossings. It was just beautiful though, like a winter landscape scene of green ferns peaking through the snow and that wonderful xmas feel you get when winter is here, just beautiful! The border for Chile went pretty smoothly, and it was funny to see everyone on the bus frantically eating and handing out any fruit or ham and cheese sandwiches they had left so that thy didn't get fined or caught out by the sniffer Labrador dog!
 
On arriving into Chile, our driver had no qualms whatsoever in shouting loudly to us all that he was indeed from Chile and NOT Argentina with many expressions of 'Este mi Chile!'and 'My beautiful Country' he even stopped to enable us to take a picture of some waterfalls near the border which is unheard of on a local bus!
 
Not far from the border the contrast of scenery was evident again with the deep green landscape of Chile re-appearing around us . Before long though gone was the mountainous landscape and soon we were back to flatter lands, green rolling hills and fields of cows, horses and sheep just like home. On route we passed Lago Puyehue which was vast and quite beautiful except that by now gone were the bright blue skys of Argentina and replacing them was a grey dull colour and a few black clouds boo! That remote feeling had gone also as now we were passing many small towns and villages at every corner definitely the more populated of the 2 countries so far.
 
Two hours later after passing in addition many bright vibrant fields full of tulips we entered the city of Osorno then joined the highway south heading for Puerto Montt. By now it was absolutely pouring down which, after not seeing rain since the Inca Trail seemed very strange and also reminded us of home, boo! Soon we arrived in Puerto Montt, a port town which on our arrival, with the grey sky, rain beating down, navy ships in the port and the dotted concrete high rises, reminded us abit of Plymouth! Not wanting to get too wet, we headed out of the station and up the hill loaded with our 30kilos each to hostel Vista Mar (Seaview!) . We knew we were in a port town just by the sheer smell, the one I love so much, FISH!!! And by the side of the road you could buy anything from mussels to salmon to CD's! Plus a few million stray dogs if you are so willing....
 
The hostel thankfully had a room and despite being a tad over what we usually spend, the inviting large clean room, view overlooking the sea and tranquillity was to much to say no too! Both shattered to bed it was for the rest of the afternoon to try and get some sleep with Ads enjoying the fact that the TV had cable so English footie could be watched! After a siesta we awoke to see a Navimag ferry sailing past and knowing that they leave on Mondays only had this horrible internal feeling that we had missed our boat until we realised that this was actually the San Rafeal glacier boat, phew! On looking at what was similar to the home we would have for the next 4 days, the cargo ship with minimal comfort areas set against a rain storm was not as inviting as we had hoped but that is what would add to the experience even more, bring back Wightlink!!! Hiking in the rain to the supermarket that eve where even the stray dogs head learnt from the homeless and lay on cardboard boxes outside, we got some eggs and poached egg on toast it was for tea and a very early night!
 
The next day after a good 14 hours sleep (think we are both a wee tired!) we awoke to the rain lashing down and another grim day! The plan had been to go to the Isle of Chiloe for the day but due to time it would have meant doing a tour and neither of us had the inclination or money to do a tour especially not in the pouring rain, so we decided to visit the docks and the indigenous markets . On route we bypassed the Navimag office only to find a poster in the window saying that our ferry for the next day had been delayed a day and that the sailing would now be on Tuesday at 'some time they were unsure!' Things weren't looking good!! Another rainy day in Puerto Montt...nice, but as we were both tired we didn't mind chilling as we needed it but it meant that all the time wasted meant we were losing even more days in Patagonia which wasn't good.
 
On route along the Port it reminded us both of times with Pauline and Barry aka ma and pa down in Cornwall, the old blue and orange fishing boats were exactly like the Cornish ones and the channel overlooking a green forested island setting reminded us of Looe or Fowey! Ads was determined to try some local fish so we wandered around the very smelly fish market then attempted to find a café there that did food other than fish....quite difficult with limited Spanish in a fish market!! Anyway thankfully we ended up in a small place with the locals where Ads had 2 huge pieces of salmon for all of 3 pounds and I was treated by the locals, much to their amusement, to 2 fried eggs and chips, lovely!! Uncle Tony you would have been proud! Full to the brim and smiling from ear to ear now that he had finally had fish and felt full, we wandered back thro the markets, along the dreary sea front and back again to the hostel wandering what we would do for our free day the next day.
 
Again we awoke the next day to torrential rain, no sightseeing for us today! A chilled one it was in the hostel where we met a Mexican guy called Fernando who was travelling across central and south amercia on his BMW motorbike, who kindly phoned Navimag for us to confirm the sailing and thankfully it was still running, boarding time, 2pm, phew! So we stocked up on nibbles, wine, beer and more beer for the trip, walked into the plaza des armes which on all accounts was a slightly nicer part of town, ate meat n mash in some bar then headed back for another early night ready for our voyage the next day....at last!!