12th January 2015 – Temuco into Patagonia

In Chile the standard check out time in hotels is midday, how civilised, pity we have to be on the road by 8:00 each day! Except for today as we only have a 4 hour drive down the motorway, so we walked 3km into the town centre and wandered around the market which wasn’t quite open (much to the delight of all the husbands).  We were in search of a cafe for a coffee, we’re convinced they don’t exist.  A standard coffee in Chile is an instant Nescafe. We hit the motorway for our trip into Patagonia and our 2 night stay at Puerto Varas which is at the south end of Lake Llanquihue with views of 2 snow caped volcanoes.  It is a very pretty town, the buildings have a German alpine style and our hotel is like a ski lodge inside with lots of timber and an open fire, its very cosy. On the walk into town for dinner at a seafood restaurant the views over the lake were stunning as the sun was setting and the clouds parted to reveal the snow capped tops of the volcanoes.