Puerto Montt, Chile

January 23, 2008

Welcome to the lake district of Chile….and what a spectacular place it is! Without question, this is one of the most scenic places I have ever been.

We headed out from the city of Puerto Montt which is relatively new in its architecture as the old city was totally destroyed in 1960 by a massive earthquake. We soon came to the Llanquihue Lake, the second largest lake in all of Chile. So beautiful! Along its black rocky beaches there are scores of small villas to be rented for the weekend…and what a place to come for a holiday. No spot would be better than the next as they are all special and all overlook the most beautiful snow-capped volcano you can imagine. If you were to look up the word “volcano” in the dictionary, the image of the Osorno Volcano is what you would find. Perfectly formed into a cone shape with the top two thirds “dripping” in snow, this magnificent volcano, still active…but quiet for now…dominates the region. With the lake as smooth as glass, the reflection of the volcano dominated our most scenic drive.

Eventually we made our way to Lake Todos los Santos, sometimes called the “emerald” lake…no doubt, because its pristine waters are the most beautiful emerald color you have ever seen. We boarded a comfortable catamaran for an hour’s cruise which gave us close-up views of the volcano.

Back on shore, we took a short hike across a rapidly flowing river for a close-up view of the Petrohue Rapids and waterfall. It was like looking at a picture post card in reality. Our only problem was fighting the large horse flies. The size of a pecan half, these stinging pesky creatures were determined that we were not going to invade “their” waterfall. Luckily since I had plenty of OFF wipes with me and I adopted a mind-over-matter attitude that I would simply not fight them off, they flew to others who spent their time swatting and waving while I enjoyed the view. And what a view indeed. Over thousands of years the force of the water has created deep troughs in the rocks where the emerald green water cascades with enormous speed and deafening sound. Those few minutes in that special place are ones that I will never forget and ever time I hear the sound of rushing water I am sure that I will be transported back to the Petrohue Rapids once again.

Our delicious luncheon of fresh salmon (Chile is second only to Norway in the exportation of salmon…a statistic they are working hard to change) served in a charming restaurant along side the lake was followed by a short visit to Puerto Varas where I sat in the lake-side park and listened to a street performer play his pan flute capped off the day…a very special day indeed with beautiful crisp but comfortable sunny weather and unforgettable scenery. It just doesn’t get much better than this.