... and finally Chile!

So now I am in Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile... but let's go back a couple of days. Yesterday morning I did the Andean Lake crossing, from Bariloche in Argentina to Puerto Varas in Chile. From Bariloche (or should I say Barainloche?... 'cause it rained a lot...) by bus to Puerto Pañuelos, also on lake Nahuel Huapi (which means the island of the tiger in local native indian language, maybe 'mapuche' I am not sure). From Puerto Pañuelos by boat further to Puerto Blest, to the west, in the border of the lake, passing by a little island where Perito Moreno is buried (I'll explain later who he was and why so many places have his name), which took more or less 1 hr. From Puerto Blest walking 3 kms through the forest to Lake Frias. Then again a boat to the other end of the lake for 45 minutes, where we did the Argentinian border crossing formalities. There we took a bus through the forest and through a mountain pass at some 1500 meters, the highest point we reached(already a chilean one, now with a chilean guide) to Peulla, the Chilean border crossing where we had the border formalities (and usual luggage check - they made open every single suitcase!). At Peulla, after eating something we took another boat to cross Lago de Todos los Santos or Lago Esmeralda (due to its green emerald colours) to finalise at the feet of imposing Vulcano Osorno, the biggest in the region, still active, with some 2650 m. One can still see the grey/black lava sand comimg down the vulcano and going in the lake. Before reaching Puerto Varas by 7 in the evening, we could still appreciate the Petrohue falls (beautiful) and drive by lake Llanquihue. However, by that time of the day the sky was already pretty grey and the sun had abondoned us a couple of hours ago so it was not as beautiful as it looks in some pictures. Anyway this was a beautiful trip and I can only say that those were some of the most beautiful views and landscapes I ever saw in my life. Adding to that the group was quite nice in particular Juliana (from Brasilia in Brasil), Massimo (from Rome, Italy) and Francine (from Gent in Belgium), who really were great and helped making this an unforgettable trip.