The trip from Bariloche in Argentina to Puerto Varas in Chile by boat is one of the most popular tourist activities in Patagonia. And so we decided that Jo and Viv would embark on this excursion while yours truly volunteered to drive the rental car round.

The term boat trip is bit of misnomer, the travel actually involving 3 boat and 4 bus hops, essentially taking the most direct route across the lake region, altogether about 11 hours and covering just over 100km. My car trip, by comparison, took about 5 hours to cover 300kms as I wound my way around the lakes. Both trips were stunning in terms of the scenery – snow capped mountains, forests and lake vistas each seemingly more photgenic than the last. Just one of the world’s great journeys.

The only slight blemish on our respect travel routes was our experience with the Argentinian and Chilean border controls. Leaving Argentina involves arriving at the border station, parking and entering a long building with many signs (none of them in English of course). Helpfully you are handed a form indicating two steps, the first being simply to hand over your passport upon which I received my first stamp indicating step one had been successfully completed.

Step two was more confusing – I wandered over to another section and was called to a counter where I presented my passport again, along with various forms from the rental car company “allowing” me to take their cheap piece of junk across the border. I was greeted with a fast stream of Spanish until the official looked at my passport. “ALL BLACKS” he boomed. “PUMAS” I barked back, entering into the spirit of things. From then on things went very smoothly with lots of furious stamping and (helpfully) no further correspondence in Spanish until all was seemingly complete upon which I received a “GOOD MORNING” which fair shook the rafters and caused a number of curious looks from others in the queue.

I drove off feeling quite pleased with myself only to discover, about 20km further down the road, an identical Chilean border control where the whole process was repeated . . .

Well I am pleased to report our time in Chile made it all worthwhile. The town of Puerto Varas, also known as “La ciudad de las rosas” or “the city of roses”, is nestled on the shore of Chile’s second largest lake – Llanquihue. Our Airbnb is about 100m from the lakeshore, and just around the corner from some excellent restaurants. It’s been sunny but not exactly tropical in terms of temperature with an average of 15 degrees in what is supposed to be one of the hottest months. Having said that the lake foreshore has been full of local families taking in the sun and swimming – surprisingly the lake temperature is not so icy cold (not that I have yet taken the plunge).

On the other side of the lake, and dominating the skyline, stand the snow capped peaks of Mt Tronador, Mt Calbuco (which spectacularly erupted in 2015) and the massive Orsono Volcano. Viv and I drove up the ski-field road on Orsono and were treated to dazzling views from the top. Being summer, we had the place virtually to ourselves – the ski lift was even started especially for us so we could gain a bit of height before wandering back down a specially prepared path. On our way back we visited the Petrohue waterfalls, a spectacular spot.

Tomorrow we depart back to Argentina where we will spend Christmas day.