Chaiten Volcano, Carretera Austral

Chaiten is a sleepy little town at the bottom of an active volcano, which buried the town in ashes in an unexpected eruption in 2008. The hike up to the volcano turned out to be extremely steep and hot but we were rewarded with some great views. Back in the town we found some cute little restaurants that were basically located inside a family's living room and tried a couple of local specialties, such as "Curanto" (seafood stew) and "Puyes" (little river fish) and were suprised to learn that there are great german style cakes and craft beers because of the german settler influences. The vegetation was super lush and wet around there, the mountains were often misty and gloomy looking. As Hadleigh put it: "If there is a dinosaur around the next corner, i wouldnt be suprised."