Puerto Varas

Just spend 2 days in Puerto Varas, doing recon work for when I´ll be back with Jonathan. So much to do here, reminds me of Queenstown in New Zealand, with the rafting, horseriding, hiking, and canyoning (a must!).
Went for a hike to the Petrohue falls... although the word `falls` is a bit of a stretch...more like a big rapid...still, very cool view of the Orsano volcano & others in the background.
In the evening, I hung out with students (from Spain, Italy, Germany) at the hostal who were traveling around after a semester in Santiago. The fun thing was that we spoke Spanish to each other, instead of English. Great practice for me. Somehow I can undestand them whey they speak (must be the foreigner`s way of talking), but not so much when the old people talk to me in the bus (might be because they have no teeth!!).

Now, I´m in Chiloe, an island in the south part of Chile. The people here actually barely consider themselves Chilenos, but rather Chilotes. They´ve kept their own dialect and have a strong traditional culture mixed to mythology. It´s little quiet being a sunday and before the Holiday. Nevertheless, I´ll walk around and treat myself to seafood for lunch in the palafitas (those houses on stilts) and to a xmas concert in the Cathedral tonight. Off to the northern part tomorrow to check out a penguin colony.

That´s it for now. Note that I added pics in my previous entries.

Merry Xmas to everyone!