Part 2: Puerto Varas Area

20241214-16

The Trip

From Vina del Mar, we returned to the airport at Santiago and took an in-country flight to Puerto Montt located in the south-middle portion of the country.  We got our rental car at Montt for a one-way trip via road back to Santiago.  We were not sure what was in the area (despite the guide books and internet) so we were very pleased with what we saw.

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

Upon arrival at the airport at Puerto Montt, we got our first view of one of the many active volcanoes in the area.  This is Volcan Osorno.  The A320 in the foreground was our ride from Santiago.

Kathleen, handled room reservations.  She got us a nice room at Awa, a 5-star hotel on the shores of Lago Llanquihue, a large fresh-water lake at the base of the mountains.

The room was nicely appointed and there was a large plate of goodies awaiting our arrival.  I am not so much of a "brownie guy", but the cookies were good if a bit heavy on the chocolate chips.

A closer look at the flanks of Osorno will reveal that there are heavily wooded areas that benefit from the rich volcanic soil.  The following day we would head out in the car to explore the area in more detail including ascending the side of the volcano to the ski area there.

Looking back at the hotel, it was an imposing structure.  Recently constructed of poured concrete to provide seismic safety.  Any area on the flanks of an active volcano will be subjected to high-intensity earthquakes.  Indeed, the entire Andes mountain range was created by the subduction of the Naza plate under the South American plate.  In 1960, Valdivia suffered the largest quake (recorded) in history - a 9.5.  In 2010, the area around Conception (to the north of us) suffered a 9.0 quake with extensive damage.  An area to the north of Conception, but south of Santiago experienced a 6.2 the day before our arrival in Puerto Montt.  We were at our hotel in Vina del Mar and felt yet another quake.

The hotel had an indoor pool that was cantilevered.  This was a case of "style over function" in my mind; no material benefit of this design other than bragging rights.

We were sitting in the hotel restaurant having dinner and Kathleen noticed the moon rising over the flanks of Osorno.  While shot through the window of the dining area with an iPhone, the photo above captures the essence of the moment.

Later, when we returned to our room (drunk from a full bottle of the awesome local wine), I got my Sony A1 and attempted another shot of the moon.  The huge range of exposure values from the very dark to the bright moonlight reflecting off Lago Llanquihue provided a big challenge for the electronics in the camera.  The white dot on the right side of the Osorno volcanic cone is not an artifact, but rather lights at the ski area there.  We would visit that area the following day.  Lights on the horizon of the lake are other small villages.

We had a nice, if boozy, night and slept well.  We awoke to light clouds at the base of Osorno.  Happily, these clouds would clear as the sun heated the air later in the day.

We had a great breakfast at the hotel and then headed out in the rental car to see some of the local sights.  We did a road-side bio-break and spotted these interesting flowers in bloom.

Being the austral spring, there were plenty of flowers in bloom.  The bell-shaped flowers came in many colors: red, purple, white and all shades in between.

We drove towards a small village called Ralun.  When we crossed the Petrohue River, we got a nice view of another volcanic peak, name unknown.

The road got worse near Ralun.  Given that we were in a 2wd rental car, we revered track and headed back north again and then turned east toward Lago Petrohue.  On the way to Petrohue, we could see a sharply eroded peak in the distance.  The erosion is likely due to glacial action; I doubt that this peak is a volcanic cinder cone as it is way too steep.  Note the dead tree to the left of the photo above.  This area is densely forested and like any similar area, subject to forest fires.  Chile has yearly fires, like the western U.S., and due to the density of the trees, fire control is a big deal.

On our way to Petrohue, we encountered a pull-out that allowed a view of the surrounding peaks.  This volcanic peak is Volcan Calbuco and is about 1800 meters tall.  Imagine my surprise when an hour later I discovered that this volcano is not only active, but the last eruption was in 2017.  It covered the surrounding area with about a half a meter of ash (18") which was deep enough to cause roofs of structures to collapse.  When the winter rains came, the ash choked all the roads and rivers and caused flooding.

The mountains along the Petrohue river were very steep and rugged.  Note the color of the exposed ground - this is the volcanic ash from the 2017 eruption.

The hillsides were very steep and nearly impassable.

The Petrohue river drains Lago Todos Los Santos and produces high-volume runoff during the spring snow melt.  Note the light blue color of the water which is laden with rock dust and ash.

The light blue color of the water is apparent in the photo above.

Fly fishing is popular in Chile and it is world famous.  This fellow is trying his luck.

The paved road ended at the Petrohue Lodge.  They had open seats, so we stayed for lunch.  Kathleen had locally-caught salmon from the Todos Santos lake which is right next to the lodge.

The lodge was very deluxe and were we to return to this area, we would likely stay here.

The lodge had nice custom wooden furniture.  Note that the coffee table is made from a huge split log.

The lodge is actually quite small with only twenty rooms, but the food was great.  It was built in 2004.

We left the Petrohue Lodge and headed back down the canyon toward Volcan Osorno.  The shot above was taken from the base of the mountain before we drove up to the ski lift.

 The road up the flanks of Osorno was steep and twisty, but our little rental car did fine without overheating.  That was not the case for a number of cars we passed on the road.  The view from the ski area was awesome.  The photo above shows Volcan Calbuco and Lago Llanquihue.  Our hotel is on the point of the lake.

A closer view of Volcan Calbuco.  Again, this is an active volcano which last erupted in 2017 covering the whole valley below in 1/2 meter of ash.  The ash fall resulted in havoc.

This photo shows the grade on the road to the ski area.  The structure in the bottom center of the photo above is a cell tower.  We had good coverage on all the roads we traveled on, even in most of the steep canyons.

A view of Osorno from the base of the ski area.  The lifts were running allowing tourists on foot to get higher on the mountain.  We elected not to ride the lift.  Note the slabs of snow that are ready to slide on the right flank of the mountain.  The cracks are clearly visible.

We were told that there were many foxes in the area.  They had figured out that pull-outs were great places to scam a meal from the passing tourists.  A lady to the left (out of frame) had tossed some item for this fox and he scurried to retrieve it before it would be taken by buddies.  There were several foxes working the parking lot.  We also saw them lower on the mountain as well.



The next morning we traveled to Fruitillar on the north side of Lago Llanquihue.  Looking south, we could see Osorno as well as the dragon-tooth peak that we saw yesterday from Petrohue.  That tooth is a really steep, rugged peak.



Be still my beating heart!  On our way to see the Teatro del Lago, we parked next to this MAN expedition camper.  We spoke to the owner's wife who was inside, Ines, and she said that they had been on an extended South American road trip and had been to every country except Guyana.  They were headed north the following day.  The husband built this rig himself.



A side view of their camper.



Our walk into town took us past the Bomberos, AKA Feuerwehr.  They used a rig similar to Thor, so it was worth a photo.  Interestingly, Fruitillar has a distinct German influence, thus the German label on the truck.



Across the road from the fire department was Lago Llanquihue, so we went down to check out the beach.  Note the dark volcanic sand and the thunderclouds building on the horizon.  The local weather service was calling for rain the next day.



A partial view of Teatro del Lago from the beach.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2024, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.