Puerto Montt, Chile

Puerto Montt is a city of over 185,000 people and is noteworthy as the capital of Chile's tenth region which includes the well-known Lake District. Its ports serves as the shipping point for many of its locally produced products, mainly lumber and its by-products as well as an abundance of farm-raised salmon.

 The forecast for today was 75 degrees and sunny.  But after tendering in to the dock from the ship, all we saw were clouds, hanging low in the sky and it felt like it could rain.  The picturesque volcano, Mt. Osorno was nowhere to be seen.

But, our group of 20 found our guide and bus driver and off we went, hoping conditions would improve.

Our first stop was a visit to the town of Puerto Varas, on the country’s largest lake, Lago Llanquihue (pronounced yahn-KEY-way) and known as the City of Roses.

Its origins are German since immigrants from Germany were encouraged by the Chilean government to settle and develop this potentially rich part of Chile, which until then had been overlooked.  This was a pit stop in one of the seasons of the Amazing Race.  Our guide thought it was the year the cowboys won.  Their task in this town was to gather ingredients for a local delicacy.  We’ll have to try and find that episode on the internet and watch it again.

 By this time, the clouds are burning off and we could see blue sky and glimpses of the volcano in the distance.  We visited the Vicente Perez Rosales National Park and the Petrohue Falls and Rapids, which provided us with fantastic views of both the volcano and the falls.

 After traveling several miles over the Pan-American Highway, we entered the rich agricultural part of the region where there are many farms and ranches, with several varieties of livestock, including llamas and emus. Our itinerary included a stop at the bavarian-styled village of Frutillar, with the near-conical, snow-capped volcano, Mt. Osorno, in the background.

 

 

We visited Lago Todos, also known as Emerald Lake. The road to this area is unpaved and traverses a lava field before heading back toward Puerto Montt.

 

We are coffee drinkers and found the following interesting as we had quite the adventure in Australia back in 2010 when we wanted a cup of coffee and had to quickly learn the difference between “long black, short black, flat white”, etc.

“If you ask for coffee (café) in Chile, surprise!—you nearly always will get a cup of plain old hot water and a puzzled stare from the waiter if you seem to expect more.  There will be a can of Nescafe and a sugar jar on the table, and you’re expected to make your own coffee mixture.  If, however, you want brewed coffee (sometimes espresso, sometimes percolated), you must ask for café expresso or café-café. If you ask for café con leche (milk), you’re liable to be served a glass of hot milk, into which you spoon the Nescafe.  Café-café con crema comes as close to coffee with cream as North Americans would drink it.  But that doesn’t always work either.  Getting a cup of coffee in Chile can be fun and something of a mild adventure.”

It was a great day in a beautiful area of Chile.  The tour company, GV Tours, was top-notch and provided us with a wonderful experience.