Patti: We are now in Puerto Varas which is basically the gateway to Patagonia. It is located on a beautiful lake which is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. We ended our travels with Pachamama yesterday so from here on in we are on our own. Salmon is the local favorite food in this area as they have many salmon farms.Our guide (Hector, a Bob Marley wanna-be) with the Pachamama had many opinions and information about the environmental concerns in this area, with the salmon farms contributing their share to the problem. However, it didn´t stop Hector from recommending salmon for a meal and it was awesome! I was a little more experimental with the local fare yesterday and it didn´t turn out as well. It was some sort of seafood soup but it was way too fishy for my taste.
We are very anxious to continue our travels south into Patagonia (but not so much the 30 hour bus ride). There are few paved roads so our bus route will take us into Argentina. It sounds like it is a bit of a challenge to get around in the area but it seems even more difficult to make a definative plan without actually being there or joining an expensive organized tour (which we did consider!) We have given ourselves 3 weeks to see what we can by bus and then will head back to Santiago before going north.
To this point, we have felt comfortable in the country and it has been fairly familiar in terms of culture and the terrain. We have also been managing all right with the language even though there are far fewer english speakers here than in Europe or Africa. From other travellers we have met, Peru will offer much more cultural diversity.
