Puerto Varas & Back into Argentina

After leaving the Navimag boat instead of staying in Puerto Montt, we decided to head to Puerto Varas on a short 20min trip north (I think it was the shortest bus journey we've made so far), as the views across the lake are supposed to be very spectacular.

Unfortunately for us the weather was very grim for our 2 days there and we didn't get to see anything except clouds and rain, though luckily during one of the rare clear patches I did get a photo of the local cathedral. Weather aside, this was definitely a very nice chilled place to stay in, the hostel (Compass del Sur) had a great homely atmosphere and one of the best stocked kitchens we've seen so far (including free herbs and seasoning!)

As the weather had not been brilliant we decided on not going with the highly recommended $170USD bus-boat-bus-boat tour to Bariloche, instead going with the $10,000CLP (about $18USD) bus journey, which took us through some amazing scenery all of its own!

Even though it is nearly summer here in the southern hemisphere, global warming seems to be playing tricks with both Argentina and Victoria getting dumps of fresh snow, enough for skiiers to continue their sport (a month and a half after the official end of the season)...