Our uneventful trip from Valdivia became a lot more exciting as we passed the city of Osorno, our bikes running very low on gas it made the journey seem so much longer as we turned our hope to find a gas station across the next hill.
On our way to Osorno, we decided to change our plans and head on to Puerto Varas, located on the lake at the foot of Volcano Osorno. Just before Frutillar Marius’s Scooter ran out of gas, luckily mine had some left, so while I waited he drove into Frutillar to get our 6-litre water bottle/gas canister filled.
That evening when we spoke to Mom it was so funny when she said that she tracked us on the app “Find Friends” and noticed that we went off the highway, then did a funny drive and back out. Love it when mom knows where we are at any stage, our own personal tracker.
Arriving in Puerto Varas we were treated to the view of Volcano Osorno and Volcano Calbuco over the lake Llanquihue. Puerto Varas is mainly a German village and very quaint. German Colonization in Chile took place in the nineteenth century by German immigrants. Thanks to the “selective immigration law” enacted in 1845, more than 6,000 families (between 30,000 and 40,000 Germans) settled in the area of Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue in the towns of Frutillar, Puerto Octay, Puerto Varas, Faja Maisan and Puerto Montt all areas known as Northern Patagonia, in the south of the country.
Our accommodation was a private room in a huge wooden Mansion, built as one of the first houses in Puerto Varas.
– Huge iron horse overlooking the lake
– Theunis highlighting where we are now!
The next morning we headed to Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park and the Todos Los Santos Lake in Petrohue for a hike along the Volcano Osorno, from here you can see all 5 volcanos around you. Hiking up the volcano we were trekking along the ravines that run down, our route basically unmarked except or a low quality photocopied map.
– Boats on the Todos Los Santos Lake
– Volcano Osorno behind us
– Marius got this great shot of the top of the volcano
– Todos Los Santos Lake
– Sunset and a cap is forming above the volcano
After 2 hours of trekking, we decided to take the loop trail and head down to the lake, it seemed that there was a path leading down, on the map as well as on the trail. Continuing downwards our trail led us into the old forest and then disappeared. Marius gave me the Marius look and said, “are we going to just bash our way through to the lake?”, never shying away from the adventure we headed straight forward. The forest getting more and denser as we climbed over fallen tree stumps, Marius bashing forward through spider webs.
About an hour into the old forest it was starting to get impossible, and the problem was that we did not even have our GPS, so Marius used his phone to try and navigate us about. Sweaty, dirty and frustrated (Marius losing his temper) we decided to turn back, this stage not even knowing which way we came in and losing our own track (seeing that we are so light-footed ;-)).
Hours later the forest cleared up as we reached a ravine and we had to skid down the slope to the dry river bed. Heading down to the lake over rocks (luckily the snow was not melting) we were so happy to be out of the forest.
Taking a day off after our serious trekking adventure, we explored the town and visited the old German houses, the Puerto Varas’ cathedral and eventually ended up having coffee watching the sun set over the Volcanos.
– Puerto Varas’ cathedral
– Inside the Puerto Varas’ cathedral
– Sunset over the volcano Osorno
– A great coffee spot we found to watch the sunset
– Marius eagerly awaiting his coffee
Luzette my sister was adamant that we visit San Carlos de Bariloche, so get ready for our next instalment on this heavenly spot.
