Puerto Varas, Chile
February 5, 2023
Today was the last excursion of our South American cruise. We’ll have a final sea day tomorrow and arrive in Santiago for a short land tour before finally heading home on the 11th.
We docked in Puerto Montt and made our way along the Pan-American Highway to Puerto Varas, the City of Roses. The area of Puerto Montt was founded by German immigrants in 1853, and that German heritage is on proud display in Puerto Varas. German architecture fills the town of 250,000, where many of the current residents are descendants of the founding families. Our visit here was brief, but we were here long enough to snap a couple photos and allow Pam a chance to use some of that German she learned almost forty years ago! We visited the town square, a local Farmer’s Market, and enjoyed a great view of Llanquihue Lake. We’re told that on a clear day you can see the Osorno Volcano from this viewpoint, but all that was available for us to see on this day was a bank of clouds.
Leaving Puerto Varas we climbed 4,000 feet up mountain roads to reach the Osorno Volcano. The higher we climbed, the thicker the clouds became, and as we exited the bus, we weren’t sure we’d be able to see any of the 8,700 foot volcano, let alone the breathtaking views the area is so famous for. But luck was on our side, and the longer we wandered the rocky terrain, the clearer the skies became. We never did get a good view of the volcano itself, but the views lived up to their reputation. The Osorno Volcano is considered the Mt. Fuji of Chile. It has been dormant for 150 years and between the months of May and August it is home to one of Chile’s most popular ski resorts.
This is what we DIDN’T see on this particular day…It was hiding in the distance behind those buildings in the first picture above.
Our final stop was at Chile’s oldest national park, Vicent Perez Rosales National Park, where we witnessed the thundering Petrohue Falls. Pictures do not do this chute-type waterfall justice. Located in an area formed over 22,000 years ago by glacial flows and supported by basaltic lava from the Osorno Volcano, these falls have an average water flow of more than 71,000 gallons per second. For comparison, Niagara falls has an average water flow of 75,000 gallons per second. The sound of the water cascading through and around the myriad of rock formations drowns out any opportunity for conversation. It is a fascinating sight.
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