Getting into Chile was the first of my huge worries. Crossing the border from Argentina to Chile surely is not the easiest thing to do. Chilean police is very strict and security checks can take ages. We took a bus, which drove across the Andes and stopped us in the middle of the Panamerican Highway near the exit to our Puerto Varas, our next destination. Moreover it was raining and we had to meet a guy from a local car hire which had to bring the car to our stop in order to get to our hotel. I had talked to this guy only through email and the bus was over an hour late, since security checks at the border took longer than expected, so I was afraid he was gone.
Luckily when we got out of the bus we found him there waiting for us. He was very nice and drove us to the hotel. Sometimes we tend to be very negative and suspicious of people. However experience has though me that most of the time we are wrong. Most of the people are kind and helpful and care about the wellbeing of visitors. We got to the hotel safe and sound and started to walk around this small town which faces the Llanquihue lake. The first impression of the surroundings were that this area resembles a lot the British countryside with green meadows full of grazing sheep, cows and horses. In fact we learnt that this area is famous for the Merino wool.
The reason we visited the areas was the stunning scenery of the Volcan Osorno and the Petrohue falls. This is the first moment where I thought “Yes all the trip was worth it”. The sceneries here were stunning and we were impressed by the power of the falls and the clarity of the water with the backdrop of the volcano all covered in snow. We made it to top of the volcano as well, however we got there in the middle of a storm and it was very snowy and windy so we missed the aerial views of the lake.
We also visited the city of Puerto Montt which faces the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time we were seeing the Pacific ocean and we were welcomed by a group of sea lions next to Angelmo Fish Market. It is always special when we see wildlife and we spent more than half an hour staring at them while they were relaxing next to the pebbled beach.
