Following a day at sea, today, Monday 12 March, we arrived in Puerto Montt and headed to the Lake District to board a catamaran for a leisurely 45-minute cruise to take in the beautiful scenery around Lake Esmeralda. On the way to the lake we couldn’t help but notice the lack of trees.  Sadly, they were chopped down and set on fire by the German immigrants who wanted farmland and so the redwoods have all but disappeared from the area.  They must have been huge trees, as the locals are still digging up the roots and using them for construction.

It was a little rainy at times, but we managed to get some photos along the way of the rolling hills and snow-capped volcanoes.

Next stop was the Petrohue Falls, a popular spot for fishing, kayaking and white-water rafting. Unfortunately, there were many people all crammed in to a small area to take some photos, reached by a narrow, central concrete path.  It felt a bit unsafe as a lot of impatient tourists were taking shortcuts by climbing over rocks on each side.  I was afraid that someone would fall but luckily, we all got out of there without anyone getting hurt.

Next was lunch at a local restaurant.  Local salmon which was delicious followed by kuchen, a German tart with strawberries and the national drink, a pisco sour, not sure about the ingredients except for the special liquor and lemon, but it tasted very good.

Last stop was to Puerto Varas.  Nice little town, very similar to others we had visited but it had one different feature, lots of roses along the pavements.  They were getting a bit past their best but still very pretty.