On 11th February I woke late and was then given a nice cooked breakfast with egg – I think they called it “paila de huevo“. I then went out to enjoy the nice location – it was delightfully rural. Two cows were being used by the owner’s family to pull a cart loaded with wood.

Back in the house I caught up on my diary and then left at 1:30 pm in a bit of a hurry as I suddenly realised that there wasn’t an infinite amount of time to go through immigration, and reach the port at Peulla, before the boat arrived. In the end I needn’t have worried – having at last officially entered Chile (again) and checked the boat / ticket situation, there was a long wait which enabled me to catch up with postcard writing. It certainly didn’t take long to see the sights of Peulla – the village consisted of just half a dozen houses dotted near the lakeshore.

The boat eventually turned up, along with the mysterious bus that connected from Puerto Frias and which hadn’t been running the day before. I was suddenly very glad I had taken 2 days to do the trip, and had enjoyed a delightful night and morning in the middle.

We set off across Lago Todos los Santos – the lake was stunningly beautiful and the sun shone from a cloudless sky the whole voyage.

I got chatting to 2 travelers from Finland who had just come out on the boat for the day as an excursion – very few people had been on the bus that had come over from Puerto Frias. These 2 Finnish girls had been to the island of Chiloe (to the west and south of Puerto Montt) and highly recommended it. I think I will have time, since my flight south is not until 15th February.

Soon the main view was of Volcan Osorno – a perfectly shaped volcano on the north side of the lake. I had heard that people think it is Mount Fuji when shown photos of it, and I could certainly see why.

Finally, after a couple of very pleasant hours, this 3rd and final boat trip of my second trans-Andean route was over, and we docked at the west end of Lago Todos los Santos at a place called Petrohue. I didn’t manage to figure out how to get myself onto the bus that connected to Puerto Montt (for the Bariloche passengers) so figured that I would hitch and walk. I soon got picked up by a well-to-do couple who took me as far as the next lake – Llanquihue. Then a very chatty family took me to Puerto Varas on the same lake, and finally a pickup took me to Puerto Montt.

I headed for the traditionally recommended travellers hostel run by “Raul” – apparently original reviews had previously raved about the place, but recently there had been mixed reviews. Raul explained that the bad reviews had all stemmed from an unfortunate incident with a group of Israelis, and urged everyone to write to Lonely Planet to say how wonderful the place was again! However I was actually given a room in the “Annex” run by Raul’s father, and the room was damp, so I probably won’t write a recommendation!

There was a kitchen, so I cooked myself some pasta that I’d carried across from Argentina. However my night’s sleep was initially disturbed by a group of… yes… Germans (sorry, Germans!) who came in noisily looking for beds.