(Puerto Varas, Chile)
While there is more than one volcano visible from Puerto Varas, Volcán Osorno is the most dominant. Right now, it is reminiscent of Mount Fuji as only the top half of the volcano is covered in snow. When the opportunity arose to hike here, we took full advantage of it…despite the high risk of rain. The lake district receives an exceptionally high amount of rain and very slippery hiking conditions were a real possibility.
After driving by numerous roadside businesses selling Kuchen, we finally arrived at Petrohue and the departure point for our hike. We would be walking for about 4 hours: a gradual ascent on the side of Volcán Osorno followed by a descent to the shores of Lago Todos los Santos (see photo at the top of this post) and then hopefully a boatride back to our mid-afternoon lunch in a Petrohue fisherman’s house.
We spent most of the first half of the walk looking up at Volcán Osorno. It is not even 3000m high but it looks much taller because there are no peaks nearby and the base is essentially at sea level. Once again, I took a lot of photographs. This was a good thing: the light was tricky and the glare made it hard to see the volcano in most of the pictures. It felt good to be walking in the clean air and we weren’t slowed by the sand-like trail that felt a bit like walking in snow.
The last part of our walk was through a rainforest close to the lake. This was reminiscent of Costa Rica, but without tarantulas and large mammals. There is little that can harm you in Chilean rainforests! We were also very happy that it did not actually rain during our hike: it is rare to have consecutive days without rain at this time of year.
When we finally arrived at the beach, there was a boat waiting for us. While boarding was made very difficult by the lack of a dock, we eventually made it on and travelled a short distance down Lago Todos los Santos to our captain’s house: as a reward for our long trek, we were being treated to a home-made lunch. We each had the choice of freshly caught lake trout or wild boar. We both went for the trout and it was very good.
The bus ride back to Puerto Varas was very quiet. I think people were both tired from the hike and aware that we would be attending a traditional Chilean barbeque that evening.
It was a real adventure to reach Marcelo’s house on spooky gravel roads and through almost total darkness. However, once we arrived, it felt like having a big family dinner in Swiss alpine hut. My favourite part was the “choripan“: this consists of a sausage (chorizo) on a bun (pan), topped with a honey mustard sauce and huge bean sprouts. I had more than one: when it came time for the main course of barbequed pork and grilled vegetables, I stuck mainly to the vegetables.
While we’re loving the natural beauty of the Puerto Varas area, our time in Chile is limited and we’ll soon be moving on to another country…or will we?