ok for reals now... i know its long but read it all!!!

So we made it to Ancud and found yet another lovely hospedaje(thanks God!) which has internet and the only person waiting for the computer after me is catie...so i´m going to take my time and write a real blog!
so our time in Puerto Varas was very much like the weather: grey and boring. there just wasn´t much for us to do there. we mostly just walked around the same 6 block area, sat by the lake and thought a lot. however the morning we left, valentine´s day actually, while catie was inside on the internet, i snuck into a flower shop and bought her a yellow daisy as a little valentine´s day gift. the little sun on a stem was just foreshadowing the things to come: Futillar!
in most of the Spanish speaking world, the word for strawberry is "fresa." but of course, in Chile, they use another word: "frutilla." and just a 45 minute minibus ride from dreary Puerto Varas is the town Frutillar. if literally translated in to English, it means "to strawberry."
upon arrival we found a hospedaje in a sweet old house with lots of children and windows, went for a walk, ate the best chocolate cake at noon, went to the dock, ate a sandwich, took a nap, ate Kuchen de frambueza(kuchen is a German pie like pastry but better and frambueza is raspbarry. such a great word....frrrrrrambueza!) and chocolate gelato. then we took a cab to a festival we heard about which actually turned out to be sort of an expo of local agricultural products. soo all these vendors with local honey, cheese, vegetables, beer, liquors(we tried like 5:) ) and such in a tent, as well as pony rides and spitting llamas, meat on a stick(out protein for the day) and traditional music and dancing. we took another nap under a tree and enjoyed the free samples and went back to town to find some Valentine´s day festivities. and we found the best kind: a Chilean boy-band called "La Otra Fe" (literally "the other faith" haha) giving a concert in the street complete with heart shaped balloons, screaming girls, and advice about relationships. the beach was crowded with people watching the sailboats with valentine´s themed light decorations, we got an apple pastry(dessert#4) and went to bed in our sweet hospedaje. we slept late, packed our faithful backpacks and set out for breakfast which turned out to be more kuchen...i had kuchen de frutilla(in honor of Frutillar of course) and Catie had kuchen de pera(pear) which made desserts 5 and 6...
we decided out of the blue from a few paragraphs in Catie´s travel book to go to Petohuè, a little town on another lake before heading down south. I had never even heard of it until Catie mentioned it saturday night, so it´s really ironic (and by ironic i mean God made it happen) that we ended up in Petrohué. we took several VERY crowded minibuses, only to arrive in the rain (yet again) in the "town" of Petrohuè which is really a traffic circle, an overpriced hotel, a tiny grocery store and a place that arranges trips and adventures for rich people all situated on the edge of the Rio Petrohué. we ate our magnificent ham and cheese snadwiches, waited for the rain to let(which never really happened) and set out in sketchy motorboat to cross the choppy teal river to our hospedaje. Hospedaje Küchel is the lovliest place in existence. it´s an old house with a closed in porch, wood burning stove in the kitchen, geese and turkeys in the yard, and a sweet sweet family. we were welcomed with hot nescafe in big red mugs and some new friends from Santiago. we warmed up, i spent some time journaling and listening to the storm from the perfect window seat in our room, and had some really good God time. we decided to cross the river again in search for a cheap dinner(6000 pesos seemed like a lot to pay at the hospedaje) but after we crossed in the rain again to find everything closed and the wind stronger than ever, we decided the pricey dinner at the house would have to do. while we waited for another motor boat, we played in the frigid wind, letting it blow our bodies around on the beach and God gave us a rainbow. no really, there was a rainbow accross the deep teal waters of Lago Todos los Santos which feeds into the river! it was amazing. we finally crossed back, and were greeted by the dueño(owener) of the hospedaje with questions about dinner. we settled on fish at 8:30...a very good choice.
it was the most beautiful meal ever. rainbow trout caught by the owner himself from the very river we crossed, with rice, potatoes, bread and butter, and some wine that was given to us by our friends from Santiago. we sat, smiling and revelling in the beauty of a good storm and good food and good company and a good God. it was beautiful. i can´t even describe t you. so i´ll stop trying.
we slept soundly on our real mattresses, ate a hearty breakfast and set out accross the river one last time to see the waterfalls(which turned out to be pretty lame) and got on a bus travel for the next 6 hours to Ancud on the island of Chiloé, where we will spend the next week or so.

things I´ve learned:
* GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!
* it takes two to strawberry(in reference to our dear Frutillar)
* it is possible to fix a bus while its running...on the way out of petrohué this morning, our bus kept dying and they would just open the trap door next to the driver, bang around a little until the engine made less scary sounds and keep going until it started smoking again... :)
* Chilean tv is terrible...
* everything is better in the rain
* we have VERY good luck with hostals!
* plums(ciruellas) and golden raisins(pasas rubias) are my favorites...especially in Spanish

there´s probably more, but this is really long...so until i have stories of penguins and the magic of Chiloé(which i will soon!) i love you all!
¡ciao!