Bill's Blog

Puerto Varas

Thursday, we left Valdivia mid morning on the Cruz del Sur bus line. The fare to Puerto Varas was $6.50. We arrived about three hours later. It was overcast but still fairly warm. We took a long time to find accommodations. The price of a room is very high here. The only rooms less that $35 per day were with a shared bath. The lowest of those was about $25 without breakfast. The best price for a share-bath with breakfast was $34. Private rooms with breakfast started at $48. Given these very high prices we opted for a small double bungalow for $50 per night. The owner calls his rentals Altos del Pilar. Our unit has two floors, with three-bedrooms, a kitchen, cable TV and Wi-Fi. We were able to negotiate this lower price because we would stay four nights and, of course, there are only two of us. By the time we found this place, the sun had burned off the clouds. It got a bit warmer. When we walked to the Lake Llanquihue, we could see the Volcano Osorno across the lake - about 30 miles away. We walked a bit in the town center and finally split a fish dinner. We have been eating a lot of fish in Chile. It is always very good to eat and it is reasonable in cost, even cheap at times. We picked up some groceries before calling it a day.

I slept late on Friday. I was exhausted from climbing up and down the hills around Puerto Varas. Yes, I forgot to mention that the search for accommodations was strenuous, as I had to hike and climb a lot. Once up I took it easy, fried some eggs and worked a puzzle. About noon the sun burned the mist and clouds off. We made a walking tour of the town concentrating on the century old houses that the German immigrants built. These houses are larger than the common small houses seen throughout Chile, but not much different than the common farmhouse in rural Wisconsin. The mora (blackberries) could be picked many spots in town and on our tour. We tried to get into the beautiful old German Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, but it was locked up. Then it was more time down on the lake. We ate an early dinner at Dane's restaurant. We had pastel de choclo, a Chilean speciality made with cream-corn and chicken bits.

Saturday started overcast again. We headed out at noon hoping for the sun to come out. It almost did. It warmed up, but I still needed a jacket about half the time. We ate pizza at a late lunch. It started to sprinkle in the late afternoon. We stopped and picked up some bread for sandwiches in the evening. Shortly after returning to our bungalow, the rain started. It rained hard and continued raining all night. We had ham sandwiches and drank a bottle of wine in the evening. We watched TV and went to bed.

While I write this entry on Sunday morning, the rain continues. It has lightened up some. We will get out for a while when it stops. Later we will entertain ourselves on the internet and by watching TV.

For the cost, Puerto Varas hardly seemed worth more than an afternoon stop. Still we stay four days, which was at least one day too much. It is a pretty little town on a large beautiful lake with the mountains and volcanoes off on the horizon.

Tomorrow we will set of for Castro on the island of Chiloe.

Bill on the Shore of Lake Llanquehue with the Volcano Osorno

Posted by bill at March 1, 2009 02:47 PM