We finally left Pucon (one day late thanks to Mareike and her Cuba Libres) and headed for Valdivia, a small town that the guide books said was really nice. The guide books failed us again. It wasn't that nice and we stuggled to find somewhere to stay. Eventually we found somewhere, stayed the night and left early in the morning for Puerto Varas. This time the guide books were right (well they have a 50/50 chance) and Puerto Varas was lovely. We stayed a couple of nights (Hostel Casa Mawenco, really nice, bright, clean and friendly) and then headed to Petrohue, a small, nearby village in the national park, to finally test out the tent.
Village might be a bit of a stretch. There was one hotel, one campsite and a tiny little shop. However, the views from the camp site were amazing. We pitched our tent so that we could see out onto Volcan Osorno, it was pretty amazing. We watched the sun go down and made a nutritious dinner of Pate sandwiches. The whole thing was marred only by the presence of millions of fecking flies doing their best to eat us alive.
After a fairly uncomfortable nights sleep (camping mats are no good, blow up mattresses are the way to go apparently) we set out for a 12km walk. I hadn't realised how much uphill climbing there would be and was after a few hours completely knackered. We made it to the top of the ridge between the two mountains and yes it was a good view. However, I could appreciate exactly the same view an hour before! We walked back. A total of 7 hours walking.
That evening we decided to treat ourselves to dinner in the hotel, mostly to get out of the way of the flies. Our campsite was on the otherside of the river to the hotel and so you have to get a boat across. When we were dropped off we asked the guy if he could pick us up mas tardes. He said sure at 9:30, just shout across for him. We ate dinner, 9:30 came and we went out to get the boat. He wasn't there. So we really did shout for him. Half past nine, all was quiet, a beautiful still night in a very quiet village and Dave is shouting 'Hola, cruzar' at the top of his voice. It was very funny. Eventually someone shouted something back and a boat appeared. Another night with little sleep and we packed up the tent to head back to Puerto Varas.
Petrohue is pretty and the camping was fun but there are better walks in other places I'm sure.
