Leaving the Lake District — next stop Punta Arenas

We’re flying out in about an hour so I thought I’d upload a couple of photos while I still have internet. One can never count on having fast internet.

Yesterday we visited the oldest national park in Chile — rapids (horizontal waterfalls) and volcanos. It was another gorgeous, hot, sunny day. Yeah — I’m coming home with a suntan whether I like it or not. Geographically we’re in the center of Chile, at about the same latitude as the Washington Oregon border. This area is much wetter though, as it is considered a rain forest (about 75 inches annual rainfall). It doesn’t feel humid though, probably because of its western location (or maybe it’s just drier than Buenos Aires).

After our short hike and fast boat ride on the rapids, we visited a nearby family for lunch. This is the view from their front lawn (you can’t see the volcano from this shot, but it’s there). They live on a lake and ferried us across in their boat. We ate fresh trout (they were caught the day before), potatoes, beets, salad, rice, biscuits and homemade raspberry jam.

This is Tony making friends with one of the couple’s dogs. It seems like all the dogs in Chile are very friendly (if they’re awake).

This is the volcano — also from the couple’s property. They let people pitch tents — talk about idyllic!