Staying in people´s houses...

Puerto Varas, Chile. Ever heard of it? Yep, we hadn´t either...but decided to spend almost a week here. The Chilean Lake District is just beautiful. Imagine Lake Tahoe framed by huge volcanoes around it. Pretty sweet. Finally the weather has started to feel like summer instead of crazy winds (yes, tons of options to kitesurf down here if I had my gear...) and up and down temps.

Before we got to Puerto Varas we had some awesome local experiences. Just imagine traveling along for about a week, staying in different people´s houses along the way. This is called an "hospedaje" here.

#1) The first one we stayed in was at the bottom the the Carretera Austral. It´s late at night, we´re looking for a place, and the first one we find is this messy house with a bedroom. Done. Little did we know that the 1 year old kid "Ben-ha-min" (Benjamin!) would be up until after midnight...only to later crawl in the room and eat my chapstick! Oh, I forgot, if we wanted to cook we could...only it was outside on a camping stove near the garage. Mind you it was 40 degrees here. ha, thanks, but no thanks.

#2) Hospedaje #2 had a great water view, was super clean, and looked great. Good kitchen, bed, clean bathroom, you know...a normal place! Nevermind the mother-owner who, whenever you wanted to cook you had to tell her exactly what you needed (Did you know that pot and pan in spanish is "olla". How do you tell them apart guys?) and she would get it out, light the stove, and basically hover over you until you were finished cooking. Doesn´t exactly make cooking enjoyable, huh....

#3) Crappy hospedaje in overnight bus town. I went to look for a place and happened upon a place run by a grandma and grandpa. I checked out the room and told her that my wife (weird still, yes!) would appreciate the mirror and clean bathroom. She immediately fell in love with us, congratulating us on our wedding all night long, again and again. Classic grandma!

Finally, we arrived in Puerto Varas...imagine staying at your friend´s house with 15 people from around the world, all staying in different rooms. This place is called Ruca hostel, and the owner, Leon, was awesome. Every place should be like this. He hosted dinners every night, hung out with everyone, people played Wii together, watched movies, etc. We made friends with this couple from Santiago and did a day trip around the lake with them. It was awesome. Funny thing is, they were actually full so we camped in the backyard the whole time. That´s the way to do it!!

We camped on Lago Todos Los Santos, overlooking this volcano trail!


Like the beard??


Saltas del Petrohue