The train from Santiago is overnight for about 12hrs and only goes as far
as Temuco. There are no passenger trains south of there.
It is a comfortable trip and worth spending a bit more and having a
compartment in the Polish 1929 built coaches. Oct is the 'off season' and so
the prices on a lot of the accom was lower than we expected, all the way
from Temuco to Punta Arenas.
If I go again, I would probably spend 5 days based in Castro, Chiloe. We
spent 5 days there 3 yrs ago and did not see it all. The place we stayed at
was 'Don Camillo' - very comfortable, clean, friendly, warm, good
restuarant, safe, central and not expensive.
The Lake District in Oct we found to be a little wet but not excessively,
very green.
Cheers, philip, tasmania, Oz
"JohnM" wrote in message
news:LvrmuZAhaSl$EwO7@scroll.demon.co.uk...
> In article <6c66c7e.0310201454.1fb6ccf6@posting.google.com>, Nywoman
> writes
> >Thanks,
> >So maybe the lake district is more desirable. It seems that whatever I
> >have found on line as far as boat trips are very expensive. Is there a
> >way to see it without going for broke.
> >Fanny
>
> You can certainly take the train from Santiago to places in the Lake
> District as far down as Puerto Montt; you could break the journey
> (I think it's 24-hrs to Puerto Montt) in several different places going
> down and different places going up. It is if you want to travel south of
> Puerto Montt that you can only go by air or by sea.
>
> For 12 days, yes, it may be better to travel south - and in November
> which is late spring in Chile - than north, because the weather is going
> to be better (though it rains a lot throughout the year in the Lake
> District, that's why it's so green) plus in the north there are
> certainly many good places but they are far apart and you will spend a
> lot of time travelling through Atacama if you don't fly around. In the
> South you can stay in Temuco or Puerto Varas and keep making daily
> excursions to different places.
>
> --
> JohnM
> Author of Brazil: Life, Blood, Soul
> http://www.scroll.demon.co.uk/spaver.htm
>
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