3/4 - Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas, Chile!

This was a FABULOUS day - one of my favorites with the best scenery.

We started out early, at about 7:30 am, and drove through Puerto Montt to the nearby resort area of Puerto Varas. Both towns are part of the "lake district" of Chile and were settled by Germans in the mid-1800s in response to incentives (free land and building materials, no taxes) provided by the Chilean government, which wanted to clear the forests surrounding the lakes and build communities there. According to our tour guide, the incentives were offered first to Chileans, but due to lack of interest, extended to people outside the country.

You can see a great amount of German influence throughout the entire region, and to this day, there are German language schools in each town that was settled by the Germans. They even have a dessert, called Kuchen, that was brought to the region by the Germans and still bears the same name in the midst of the Spanish that is spoken there. It is a sort of bread pudding - layers of custard and raspberries on top of a crumbly bread pastry.

So we arrived in Puerto Varas, we were given some free time to look around and shop and then were to meet back at the bus at noon for lunch. Puerto Varas is called "The City of Roses" and there were many different varieties of beautiful roses lining the streets.

We went into some of the shops and got a penguin figurine which we couldn't believe was only $5 and some postcards. The lady who owned the shop had some handspun wool on the walls and I asked her if it was for sale (or for making handknits- as there were many displayed and not many places sold the actual wool, just the sweaters, scarves and hats. As an aside, they were selling hats and scarves in the ship's boutiques for a great deal of money that looked like something we could whip up in a few hours out of Rowan Big Wool. I doubt they were locally produced - could be a business opportunity.) The lady said that yes, the wool was for sale, but when I had her take one down to look at, it was really rough and had a lot of weird stuff in it, like sticks and dirt, etc. Plus there wasn't enough there to actually make something out of it.

So I bought one miniature ball as a souvenir, with the postcards and penguin and we headed back to the bus.

We then had lunch at a very nice restaurant overlooking Lake Llanquihue and the Osorno volcano, near these buildings that looked like Swiss chalets. It almost looked like pictures I've seen of Switzerland rather than the beginning of the southern region of Chile!

This is an overview of the area where we were eating lunch:

with a closeup of the restaurant

and views out from the restaurant's glass walls of windows and terraces surrounding it:

The lunch was really delicious and actually pretty elaborate for lunch, with multiple courses and wine. We had our choice of Chilean white or red wine and also were served a Pisco sour, which is kind of like a lemonade liquor (very much like Limoncello served in southern Italy.) It was pretty tasty! I took a picture of it so I would remember it:

We then had a vegetable soup which was broth based with lots of pieces of corn, which seemed to be much less salty than most usual soup, and a salad. The main course was a large piece of grilled salmon, which was perfectly cooked and delicious, and some small boiled potatoes. The dessert was a piece of kuchen that I described earlier, and a really strange but delicious coffee served in tiny expresso cups. I had expected it would be really bitter, as it looked kind of like mud, but it was heavy and sweet and a little chocolaty.

Jim snapped a picture of me after lunch and I must have enjoyed it, judging by the look on my face!

After lunch, we went to Petrohue (said Petra-way) Falls and national park, another scenic spot. Petrohue River rapids are popular for rafting trips as well.

Here's one of the waterfalls:

Here's a picture another guy on our bus took of us, standing on a rock in front of the volcano (although that part got omitted somehow!)

While waiting a few minutes to go back to the bus, we checked out the handcraft market and met a little cat (who was pretty skittish and not very friendly.) I couldn't figure out whether it was a kitten or just a little tiny full grown cat.

Because of the recent trends toward global warming, many of the rivers which were previously unnavigable had dried up and we could see the bottom of the former river beds (and crossed them via our bus, as part of a very bumpy road.)

We then went to Emerald Lake, or All Saint's Lake, named for its discovery on November 1, All Saint's Day. This was also very beautiful and there were more gorgeous views of the Andes and Osorno Volcano as well.

After this last stop, we headed back to the ship and got back around 4 pm, just in time for the teatime snacks that Mac had provided for us.

At the end of the day, a beautiful sunset:

Comments

[adrienne]

Gosh Robin!! JUst BREATHTAKING PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!

[Katinka]

Oh my, those are some GORGEOUS landscapes!

[Jenny]

So beautiful! Great photos! :)

[Stacey_CrimsonPurl]

I think this is my favorite day so far!!

And from the look on your face in all the pics it was yours too! LOL

Wow...dirty rough yarn! ;op

[Judy G.]

Great pictures. It's nice to have a detailed explanation of everything you saw; it's not a spot of the world that's in our immediate future, so it's fun to travel there with you.

What are we doing tomorrow?

[LizKnits]

Your trip seems just amazing... it's hard to believe that you're only on day 3!

[KeanaLee]

Those are soms amazing views! Just beautiful, thanks for sharin!

[Bobbi]

So beautiful!

[Kat]

What a lovely day, lovely pics!

[turtlegirl76]

What fantastic pictures! Too bad the yarn was so weird. An FO made from it would have been a great memory.

[Michelle]

Wow what AMAZING photos!

[Carol]

Breathtaking! Wow. I used to make a Peach Kuchen when I was a kid, what a great dessert...Have to look it up.

[Veronique]

What a great outing this was, I am so sorry I missed this one when I was there. Thanks again for sharing your trip, it’s almost like a little mini-cruise for me.

[knittymuggins]

What beautiful scenery! Thanks so much for sharing with us :) I especially thought it was interesting how much of a German influence there was there. Never would have guessed!