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| I took the tender from the ship to Castro. I then took the tour bus to the western side of the island. |
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| Potatoes are a major crop. Sheep and other livestock were plentiful along the way. |
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| It took about 90 minutes to reach the national park. It's a temperate rainforest along the lake and a river that connects it to the sea. |
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| Our guide, who was originally from Austria, talks about the forest of tepu that we'll hike. |
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| The plants looked like a squash plant, but it's similar to rhubarb. You can chew on the stalk. |
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| We set off on a very long hike through the dense brush, bogs, and other vegetation. |
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| Here's a view of the lake in the background. |
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| Beautiful and large ferns were everywhere in this rain forest. |
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| A view from a viewing tower of the sea. |
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| Today was unusually warm and sunny. A great day for the hike. |
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| Here's the river that connects the lake with the Pacific. The water is a "tea color." It's dyed by the trees of the forest. |
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| We had a snack and drinks at a local restaurant. The yellow drink is a "Pisco Sour" which are served throughout the area. The food included seafood empanadas and some other local foods that were tasty. |
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| The owner of the restaurant is one of the indigenous people of this part of Chile. She was poor, but with assistance formed her restaurant business. |
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| Look in the background. That's snow and ice on top of the mountains. We'll soon be in the fjords of Chile. |
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| This part of Chile doesn't have snow, but look along the horizon... that's the snow covered mountains of the fjords. |
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| These are the palafitos or wooden houses built on stilts. It's low tide so the water has receded at this time of day. |
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| The ms Prisendam waits in the harbor. |
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| That's David. He's my waiter that serves my table dinner each night. He's helping out with the tender today. |
