Paseos in the Lake District

This week I've been touring around the Lake District in a southern region of Chile. On Tuesday we traveled along one of the lakes passing through the small towns of Llanquíhue, Frutillar and Puerto Octay. The towns are small and picturesque, set in the hills and trees surrounding the water. The countryside reminded me of Kentucky for the rolling hills, and northern Idaho for the roads, trees and rivers.

Yesterday Diego and I spent the morning in Puerto Montt. It's Chile's third oldest city, but a bit disorganized--it doesn't seem to follow much of a city plan. Buildings and roads seem to pop up at random. We walked around the artesan fairs, and took pictures of a great church on one side of the Plaza de Armas whose roof is made of copper and the walls of some kind of dark wood.

Today we drove to Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park, by far my favorite part of my trip here. It reminded me a lot of Montana. The lake Todos los Santos is an amazing turquoise color, surrounded by mountains, waterfalls, forests, and the volcanoes that have been alluding me since I arrived here on Monday. The volcanoes are massive and amazing, but for the weather have been hiding behind rainclouds. They finally came out today, partially, behind partly-cloudy skies.

The area was colonized by Germans, so their influence is very stark. Names of towns, types of food, the structure of the houses, even names--Claudia, Diego's wife, has German ancestry. Apparently the Germans that remain are a bit racist towards those with indigenous blood, though that baffles me when there is such a mix that almost no one could be considered completely one race or nationality or another.

I am really liking the family I'm staying with. We have a lot in common, and I hope we will be friends for a long time to come. Diego likes to play Playstation and is a music and movie connoisseur. He is a heavy metal fanatic. He's also very good with computers (I've almost got him convinced that Mac should be his next purchase). Claudia is also great on the computer, and is into good alternative music. In the time when we're not touring I've been making CD's for them--I figure it's the least I can do for allowing me to stay with them. They were very excited to see everything I had on my laptop (thanks, Nash). They've invited Jason and I to come back during their summer (March) so we can really explore the countryside in good weather and hang out.

I was supposed to go back to Santiago today, but not surprisingly for Chile, all the busses were full and I'm not leaving until Saturday night. I'll arrive in Santiago Sunday morning, then take another bus to San Felipe, where I'll catch a "micro" to Santa María. All just in time to teach a full day on Monday.