No rain today! Happy Birthday to me! 12/17

We can now see the beautiful mountains and lakes!

First, we need gas and it's not easy to find out here. The shitty map worked this time and we filled up our little Peugeot in Ensenada. She's been a little beast. 

We drove to the Petrohué waterfall which was a wide river that channeled through a narrow strait. The sun started to shine over the mountain that seems to have a sheer cliff but it was full of trees and shrubs. We headed up the road to the Petrohué Lake which was amazingly beautiful. Apparently the owner of Patagonia and other extremely rich people have houses. This we were told from our cute waiter who worked in Tahoe for a bit. We had breakfast of fried eggs espresso toast and honey overlooking the lake. What a contrast from the cabaña w the scary mirror. I try not to look at things when I know they are gross and will creep me out. Andy noticed, took a pic, and called me into the bathroom to look at the nasty old mirror that had cigarette burns and was barely handing on the wall. Super crackhead style. 

Anyways, we rejoiced with the lovely breakfast w the view. I bought bus tickets for our departure tomorrow to Bariloche at 8:15 am. Andy signaled for our check w the phone reflection since we were taking so long they we in the back- it got their attention.  We carried on and drove up to Volcano Orsono. On the way up we picked up two hitchhikers from Ukraine. They were friendly, we chatted and took in all the fantastic wild flowers growing everywhere. We drove 1Km up, then continued to walk up the volcano into the clouds. We could see all over the lake and Andes in Argentina. We had more to see so back down the volcano taking pics along the way. 

It was after 2 so we stopped outside Puerto Clocker near the lake. We were just going to get a snack so we ordered a shared plate of parilla papas and cucumber salad. I asked if the meat was large, she made a size showing two small pieces of meat. Good thing we shared! The steaks were large and delicious! We finished our snacks at sitting in the sun looking at the volcano we just climbed. 

Back on the road around the lake to Frutillar. The whole area looks like Switzerland it's nuts! We saw farms and animals and huge houses all in magnificent green pastures.  This town is by the lake and all the houses have a German feel as it was settled by German. Even the fire station had a German fire truck. The town was beautiful but we pushed on to find a campsite. 

We headed to the next town of Llanquihue where we found a campsite just outside town. The site was wonderful, right by the lake w a perfect view of the volcano w the glacier. Andy wanted to take me to a nice restaurant for my birthday but since we had a delish lunch and a wonderful view, I opted for the camping dinner- bottle of wine, cheese salami crackers, and Andy's specialty of Mac and cheese with hotdogs. We had a lovely evening watching the sun set. Feeding the leftover hotdogs to a stray who couldn't catch them in his mouth. A wedding was ending at our campsite just as the party was getting started at the one next to us.