Southern Chile: Region of the Lakes, Short Visit to Puerto Varas

Noteworthy on our way further south is the small town of Puerto Varas. The city of Puerto Montt, located about 20km south, is more well-known, but it is very touristy and didn't even have a hotel room available for us. Not surprising, as Chileans also like to vacation by the lake at this time.

This circumstance led us to this very idyllic location. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Llanquihue in the Los Lagos Region. On the northeastern side of the lake is the 2652m high Osorno Volcano.

While strolling along the promenade, which is also known for its beautifully landscaped flower gardens, you come across people who seem very casual and relaxed. This is probably due to the fact that tourism is a major source of income here, as well as the possibility that the tourists are just relaxed from fishing, hiking, and mountaineering;).

A city stroll shows that the architecture here is strongly influenced by German construction style.

On house facades, you can occasionally find old German symbols and writings. In some local establishments that unmistakably bear German names, you can discover insignias from the Nazi era as decorations. For us, this was extremely confusing but also surprising to find traces even here. As is well known, many Germans settled in southern Chile after World War II.

Music also plays a big role here, and so we had the pleasure of experiencing a live concert with several bands right at our accommodation. Great atmosphere with a manageable but enthusiastic audience and really great musicians!

We are aware that there is still much to see in Chile, but the distances are not to be underestimated, and we still have many other destinations in South America on our list. We have no choice but to set priorities. Four months for South America may seem like a long time, but the distances are not to be underestimated.

Since we don't intend to spend most of our time on buses and the often more than 20-hour bus rides can be exhausting, we won't be able to experience everything that would be worth seeing. We prefer to make some compromises in order to design our trip according to our own ideas and needs.

Therefore, the next day we continued by bus across the border to Bariloche, Argentina, which is also located in a lake area.