a bus then a bus then a bus...

Alas yesterday we were sin internet as well as sin phone signal so today is a two day travel update.


Monday.
We woke up in Frutillar bright and early to get our sight seeing in before we had to scoot off.......that was not necessary. 
FRUTILLAR HAS NO PEOPLE.
Literally.
We actually came up wth the game of firstly, 'Spot the person',which a little later became 'spot the person under 50'.
After wandering around for about an hour with only dogs for company, we finally found an open cafè and chowed down on tea and kuchen.


That was when i discovered that kuchen is shit.


What was supposed to originally be long morning in Frutillar, leaving by bus at around 2pm turned into a WE MUST LEAVE NOW at 12pm.


Bus from Frutillar to Puerto Montt.
Bus from Puerto Montt to Ancud, Chiloe.


On the ferry on the way to the island of Chiloe, we made friends with a Chilean, Felipe, and an Australian, Simon, both from la Universidad de Chile in Santiago.
One thing lead to another....and we all ended up in the same hostel and somehow left our travels in Felipe's trusty hands which gave us a welcome break from attempting to figure out how on earth we would get to Chepu to see the sunken forest when there was NO transport links there..?


Tuesday.
Tuesday morning was an early start to get to the bus station to get on a bus to Castro. We hopped off early at the 25km point and waited for a random man in a random jeep in the middle of nowhere to pick us up- creepy?


Nonetheless the creepy jeep that turned out to be not so creepy did arrive and all 5 of us, plus backpacks somehow fit in. A 20 minute drive on a dirt track past little wooden houses in fields surrounded by forests and bushes and random, seemingly wild, cows lead us to our hostel.
There awaiting us with open arms was the land lady and her hub. We straight away shoved our bags down in our rooms and then headed off in the jeep again to a house on the same road, next to the river.
We got in a little speed boat and set off across this wide river, leading to the ocean. 

-The sunken forest-

It was beautiful and definately worth the jouney. The water was entirely calm and the deep, deep green of the foliage on the hills on either side was just amazing.


Finally we arrived on the other side at the National Park. 


We were not prepared for the INTENSE MUD and AGRESSIVE FOLIAGE as the Lonely Planet had described.
At first i did not understand the meaning of 'agressive foliage'......i now do.


The walk was 5 hours in total, and all done following a hand drawn map by the boat man. 
Potentially dodge, though in the end, successful.


I have never seen such a variety of landscapes in one place before. We walked through intense muddy fields, a beach, sand dunes, a deep forest, moors, along cliffs and through rivers in one walk on one day. It was amazing and exhausting. And all with  our new friends, Felipe and Simon....and a few crazy wild beach cows.


We arrived back at around 6pm and straight away were fighting for a hot shower...which we did not get. 
THERE WAS NO HOT WATER. 
However, dinner was de-lish and soooo yummyyy and GLUTEN FREE. I have NO idea how everyone ate the same as me plus shit loads of bread, plus cake as well.


Around 9pm, the girls headed up to bed, exhausted, in our satin sheets, falling asleep to an intense rain and wind storm outside...




Lulo will update you on today's activities through her blog.