Another beautiful clear, warm day, starting with a fantastic sunrise. We gape at the unbelievable view from our deck of the lake below surrounded by mountains upon mountains into the distance.
We spent all day exploring a part of this massive lake, taking a boat an hour and a quarter toward Chile as far as we could go. That arm of the lake becomes ever narrower like a fjiord and steep slopes plunge down on either side. We debark at Puerto Blest, a 100-year-old hotel, hike several miles on wonderful trails through the forests, then return to the hotel for lunch of trout from the local waters. After lunch a bus takes us a few km to a glacial lake, anto another boat that takes us to within 3 km of Chile--one of the three major crossing points, in fact.In contrast to the deep blue and azure waters of Lake Nahuel Huapi, Lake Frias is a creamy turquoise from all the minerals washed down from the glacier on Mt. Tronador (Thunder Mt) towering above us at 3450 meters. We keep an eye out for condors and Richard spied one. We saw or heard a ton of other birds, and lots of different tree types--arayaanes (rare local Myrtle), beeches, cedar, local bamboo--some of the trees 500 years old! We hike a couple miles more, and then take our boat home from Puerto Blest. The Jacuzzi and sauna await!
While there is a breeze on the lakes, the air is warm and at midday we are down to short sleeves. By the time we are home at 7 pm the wind is causing white caps. No kayaks on the lake now, but we do see half a dozen sailboats off in the distance. It's a full moon tonight!
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