6 January 2020
Yep, it’s been a little while since we’ve written which is OK. After all, we’ve been busy enjoying southern Chile. At this point, while we have a good connection to the internet, we’re going to put together a few photo-heavy posts to try to catch up.
We left Peru with our very good friend and protector of Leo, Julie, who wanted to come to Chile in search of interesting biological stuff. Where better to find lots of that than in the temperature rain forests of Southern Chile. How many histories of exploration have we all read over the years where there was always a naturalist on board the expedition. Well, Julie was our naturalist and, as we always do, we learned a lot about these rain forests!
Sunset over Lago Llanquihue 
Our cabin at Bordemundo
We started this part of our trip with a few days of exploring around Puerto Varas Chile where we had a nice little cabin on Lago Llanquihue. It was a nice rustic little place with one of the friendliest hosts, Javiera, that we’ve had. It also made a good base for exploring.
There is an abundance of the flowering bushes 
Julie hugs her Abuelo, a 3000 year-old Alerce 
Enjoying the array of large ferns 
These flowering vines add a beautiful splash of red climbing up the trunks of the trees 
Jim conjured this frog up, having expected to find one on the giant Chilean Rhubarb leaves
After Puerto Varas we moved south to Lenca along the Careterra Austral, south of Puerto Montt. The area was much like the Mendocino coast and reminded me of our Caspar cabin. Even many of the plants we have up there are down here. The fuchsias that grow near Caspar are native to this area of southern Chile.
Our cabin in Lenca 
Foxglove 
Rhododendron
But, too quickly, Julie had to go take care of our dogs and see the family for Christmas and Susan and I wanted to wander south and explore Chiloe. So we got Julie onto a plane for a trip that was way too long, though that’s Julie’s story to tell, and we drove our car onto the ferry to take us south. We were sad to see her go but we knew that our puppies back home would be happy to see her come back.
Having lost our naturalist doesn’t mean we’ve stopped nerding out on everything with a metabolism that we see. One of the things that bonds Susan and I is our love for all things of nature and we do spend as much time with our heads down in the fungi and mosses as we do looking at the beautiful world around us. This is a beautiful, crazy world and it’s a lot of fun trying to figure it out!
Next up Chiloe, then on to the Careterra Austral in northern Patagonia …
It's About the Journey 