Bariloche and our limited experience of Chile

Our experience of Chile will be limited to Puerto Natales and Puerto Montt (the start and end point of our Navimag adventure). Mainly because Argentina and Chile are SO expensive, we have decided to get to Bolivia as quickly as possible. These two places, despite being relatively dull port towns, have in some ways been a highlight of the trip. So far they’ve been the only places we’ve been to that have looked how I pictured South America would be. Everywhere else has looked European so they were pretty special. Add to that a fantastic pizza restaurant in Puerto Natales and the most incredible family home (with cats and kittens!) and a fantastic steak for my birthday in Puerto Montt and I was sold.

Puerto Natales

Puerto Montt

The perfect way to spend my birthday

Our next stop was Bariloche for three days and with pneumonia behind us it was finally time for some exercise! We met up with some friends and Chris, three guys and I went on a stunning 25k bike ride. We had wonderful views of the lakes and mountains and road through forest tracks. We also came across an artisan festival in a tiny town with food, beer and crafts. I was knackered by the end and the guys looked like they had hardly broken a sweat! 

So it was up early again the next morning for a seven hour hike at Cerro Catedral. We took two cable cars up the mountain (my first time on a chair lift!) and then essentially did bouldering and rock scrambling for over three hours until we reached a tiny refugio by a lake. It was SO stunning and made the epic first three hours totally worth it. After a paddle and a lie down we trekked another three hours through a forest track back to the town. ¼ kilo of ice cream later and I felt much better!

Terrifying sheer drop (sorry Mum)

Follow the red dots

For my birthday treat Chris took me to a restaurant called Butterfly. In this tiny lakeside restaurant run by a German guy, an Irish guy and his Argentinian wife, we had the best meal of our lives. The dinner was a seven course tasting menu and every single course was mindblowing. The dishes included a trio of amuse bouches (a shot of white tomato and goats cheese soup, a breaded wild bore nugget with cucumber and wasabi and a rabbit and onion tart). The main was lamb which had been cooked in a bag for 17 hours and then oven cooked from when we arrived at the restaurant which resulted in a crunchy coating and lamb that fell apart inside. And our second pudding, a range of sweets with a hand piped happy birthday. The combination of the host, the location, the detail in the design of the restaurant and of course the food itself made it very special. 

Smith