January 10, 2006 10 PM


Well, we’re here in Pucon (pronounced poo-kon), Chile. The trip was long (24 hours) but uneventful, and flying Air Canada out of Toronto was as good as it can be in coach. There was more leg room and there are more comfortable seats in coach than in any other airline we’ve been on, and we’ve been on many.

We arrived in Temuco at the northern end of the Lake District just before 5 PM, picked up our car, and drove just over an hour to our hotel in Pucon. The flight out of Santiago to Temuco was beautiful with the snow-capped Andes out of the window. Our hotel room is right on the lake, with a fireplace (which is now lit) and a gorgeous view. Photos of the Andes and the view out of our hotel room window attached.

We’ve made arrangements to go fly fishing with a guide tomorrow. This is apparently one of the most wonderful fly fishing areas in the world (Ned confirms this) and Felice and Lee as well as Ned recommended that we get a guide and do it, so we will. Sunset here is at 10 PM. The guide will pick us up at 5 PM and take us to a special isolated place to fish. We don’t get to keep any we catch—it’s all catch and release. We’ll get back at about 10:30 PM, in time for dinner—yes they eat that late here. We were exhausted so we had a very early dinner tonight—sat down at 8 PM, and were the first ones in the restaurant.

More after we get some trout!