We have now moved further north in the lake district, in my first blog in the area I compared it with the Cumbrian Lakes however the scale is a little different as the Chilean Lake district is about 300 miles from top to bottom and once you leave the more easily accessible areas it becomes much quieter (and nicer).
For the last two days we stayed is a perfectly adequate chalet on the shore of Lake Llanquihue in an area which the Rough Guide says is full of restaurants and activities. They lied, it might be in the skiing season (June onwards) or in the summer holidays (Christmas) but not in March.
On the first night we ate in a local cafe, Gill had fish and chips which was two big pieces of fish plus a mountain of chips and I had “Pork Loin for the Poor”, it was beef and onions and was big enough to feed a poor family for a week. So yesterday we decided to try the two restaurants recommended in the guide book. Both were closed so we ended up in a take away pizzeria which had a couple of tables. It was quite a nice pizza but not really what we were hoping for.
We have now moved several notches up market and are staying in a lovely lodge, pictured on the right, within the Futangue National Park. It is surrounded by wooded mountains and by the look of things has a fancy restaurant which we will try after I have written this blog. I hope it is good as there are no alternatives for many miles and we are booked here for two nights.
Tomorrow we hope to go mountain biking with possibly a little kayaking thrown in.
Whilst on the subject of costs the paying of bills in Chile is a little confusing for us old people. Most prices are in Chilean peso which is sometimes written 20,000clp but mostly $20,000. But some prices are in US$ which would be shown as $35, roughly the same amount but when agreeing a credit card transaction getting it wrong could be costly.
Almost everywhere takes contactless payments and our cards confuse them as our £30 limit means they need to do things differently.
When we arrived at the airport a very flimsy bit of paper, which is very easy to lose, was put in our passports. If we show this paper to the hotel when we check in (which they photocopy) and pay in US dollars which we can do on a credit card we pay no tax on the accommodation which saves 19%. We still pay the full amount on food and wine so the hotel bills become a little complicated.
On the coast there were lots of signs instructing you what to do in the event of a tsunami, here in the park the instructions are all about volcanic eruptions although I have no idea when to respond, if I see a puff of white smoke from any of the hills I will get in the car and drive as fast as I can in the opposite direction.