Pargua to Puerto Fonck - Our way to a little paradise on the shore of lake Llanquihue

Once we reached Pargua with the ferry, we had a really good street with almost no traffic and it was pretty flat, so that we made it pretty quickly to Puerto Montt, where we stayed at a small, familiar hospedaje with a very friendly owner.

Even if the Panamericana is now a real highway, there still is almost no traffic...

The next morning we first had an extensive breakfast and a long talk with the hostel owner Perla, and then we went to the center of Puerto Montt to get some stuff done which cost us most of the day, so that we only left the city by 4 pm. But luckily Puerto Varas is really close, so we got there in no time and could still walk along the lake for a while before it got dark. But unfortunately it was terribly cloudy so that we couldn't see much of the lake and we couldn't even guess that there should be huge volcanoes around...

After a good nights sleep we started with a lot of fog again... We still decided to cycle the small, partly unpaved street along the lake instead of taking the bigger road further from the shore in the hope of the weather clearing up during the day. However, we really couldn't see a lot until we got close to Puerto Octay, from there we at least got a nice view over the bay and the village...

View over Puerto Octay on our way to Puerto Fonck

View over the Centinela Peninsula on our way to Puerto Fonck

After Puerto Octay we still had 13 km of ripio, but finally the sky cleared up a bit and we could at least see the top of Volcán Osorno :-)

Our first view of Volcán Osorno on the way from Puerto Octay to Puerto Fonck

Short before reaching Puerto Fonck we
got a nice view of Volcán Osorno...

And of course we had to take pictures... :-)

After a long day of cycling we finally arrived at the Fundo los Guindos in Puerto Fonck, where Gloria, the mother of a friend of mine, received us very warmly! The first time in over 2 months I completely felt at home which honestly is an incredible feeling!! We spent most of the night talking with Gloria, while Susi, one of her dogs, warmed my feet... The next day we absolutely wanted to explore the place a little bit, so in spite of the rain we took the kayak and went paddling a bit on the lake, we got absolutely soaked, but as we knew that we'd have a warm shower afterwards and tons of space to dry our stuff, we really didn't care :-). In the evening we then drove together with Gloria and a friend of hers to Frutillar (we already passed there on our way to Puerto Fonck) in order to go to the theatre. They have a huge theatre in that little city, directly next to the lake and we went to see "The legend of 1900", which was played really well, the music was also great, I was absolutely fascinated! All in all, it was a great first day at the Fundo los Guindos!!
The next day Gloria took us to the eastern part of lake Llanquihue, where we visited the Saltos del Petrohue, gorgeous waterfalls where we could observe hundreds of salmons on their way upstreams.

Saltos del Petrohue

After leaving the waterfall, we drove up the volcano to the local ski resort, but unfortunately it was all foggy and started to rain when we got there, so we really didn't see a lot. However, it was still a beautiful day getting to know the surroundings of Puerto Fonck and to be told so much about the places by a local!

And then, finally, on our third day and the place of Gloria, we had absolutely great weather, blue sky, lots of sun and it was warm! So that was the time to take pictures...

Fundo los Guindos - a real paradise! :-)

Are you jealous yet??

View from the veranda - It's just amazing!

And the view over the lake from the house it pretty ok as well ;-)

We also made a short bike trip towards the east in order to get a good view of the volcano and this one time we cycled without luggage Stefan had a puncture, so he had to push his bike back in order to fix it...

On a short bike ride towards the east we got a nice view
of the Volcán and Stefan had his first puncture

Once back at the Fundo we again went down to the beach (joined by all the dogs...), Stefan even went swimming, we went kayaking again for a while and well, we simply enjoyed this gorgeous day...

Susi enjoyed the beach together with us

The next day was gorgeous again, unbelievable :-) So Gloria took us to Puerto Varas to her sisters and on the way there we just had to take another picture of the bay of Puerto Octay, that's what it looks like with a clear sky, it's still a hundred times more beautiful than what we saw when we passed this place by bike...

And that's the view from above Puerto Octay with blue sky...

On our way back from Puerto Varas we drove down to the peninsula Centinela in Puerto Octay where the three of us enjoyed the sun for quite a while...

Enjoying the sun together with Gloria on the Peninsula Centinela

Playa en la Peninsula Centinela

The evening we spent playing Canasta and the next day we had pouring rain all day long, so we really just did a lot of nothing, talking, and cooking (it's so nice to be "at home" when there's pouring rain outside...). And after 5 fantastic days at the Fundo los Guindos it was eventually time to say goodbye and continue our way north... Thanks again Gloria for everything, we really spent some unforgettable days at your place!!