Puerto Varas, Chile

Day 12

Best night sleep since we arrived in Chile! We didn’t hear one noise during the night – ahhh piece and quiet finally. Our hostel is a small house just a few blocks from the main Street of Puerto Varas and is a cute little cosy house. We awoke early and had a quick breakfast with a couple from Chicago. They were nice and gave us some tips on what to do for the day. We only have one full day here so we need to make the most of it!

Puerto Varas is a little town which resides on a large lake, on the other side of the lake sits two MASSIVE volcano’s. We saw them as we drove in on the bus last night. Sadly today was a little bit cloudy so the tops of them cannot be seen.

The town of Puerto Varas has just as much to offer as Pucon in terms of outdoor activities. Thankfully all the tourists haven’t found that out yet! It is a lot less hectic which is a nice change.

A few days ago I googled “What to do in Puerto Varas with only 1 day?”. The answer was obvious. Head straight for the largest Volcano called Volcan Osorno and from their do one of the 100 different hikes. It is possible to hike up the top of this Volcano too, but it costs a lot more. I’m not sure why, but it could be because their are less tourists in the area and smaller groups.

Ellen & I headed out of the hostel at around 9am to go to buy a bus ticket for the next day for our trip to Barlioche, Argentina. Unfortunately the bus station was not open yet so we’d have to come back later. Planning the next leg a bit late! Whoops – she’ll be right.

We then went downtown to find a public bus which took us to the base of the Osorno Volcano which is 1 hour away. I am getting a little bit arrogant maybe, but I didn’t bother to look where the buses left from, so we were walking around the streets for a while looking for buses to Petrohue. I gave in to Ellen’s pressure eventually and went into a tour shop to ask for directions… All good – 20 minutes later we were on a packed full bus to Petrohue which sits at the base of the Volcano! The scenery on the way there was amazing! The closer we got the more magnificent it looked – even though we couldn’t see the top due to the clouds. There is a bicycle path which wraps the whole way around the lake which offers awesome views – 179km in total. There was a few riders out & also ultra runners! I wonder if there is a race at some point during the year…

We arrived at Petrohue which sits on a different lake. The water is so so clear – even without the sun it still had the bluey colour to it. There are also huge mountains all the way around the lake – it looked pretty sweet. We headed off around the beach on the lake and started the hike. It is around a 12km loop which climbs slightly up the side of the volcano and had a great view of the lake.

After we reached the top viewpoint we were going to & took a few photos the clouds parted slightly so we could just see the bottom of the glacier on the volcano. It is so damn big.

We hiked back down, conscious that we needed to get back to town at a reasonable hour to sort out our bus to Barlioche the next day. We made 2 new dog friends that followed us the whole way home. They were stray dogs but looked well fed and really friendly. Ellen thinks the black one is Sirus Black… geek!

We found the bus back successfully and chose the water side of the bus in the event the clouds would part and show the Volcano top! It was not to be – if only we were here yesterday. We arrived back in Puerto Varas at around 6pm and headed back to the bus station to try buy a ticket to Argentina! We were told they were sold out for the next day! There is only one bus provider which leaves from Puerto Varas. A little bit of panic/annoyance set it as we already booked & paid accommodation in Barlioche the following night. We hurried went back to the hostel and checked for some other options. Luckily – there was around 5 seats left on another bus provider which leaves from Puerto Montt, a town which is around 25km from Puerto Varas. We are not able to sit together but oh well, some extra Justin time. We booked it quick smart! Done – sigh of relief.

Now that we knew what we were doing the next day we ate dinner and headed down to the beach to watch the sunset and hopefully see the sky part to see the Volcano! Unfortunately not, no top of Volcano can be seen. But Ellen thinks it was still a really good sunset though! On the way back we watched a one man band playing in the street – we both think he was singing Daughter by Pearl Jam but he was singing the words in Spanish! Such a good tune!

I wish we had more time in Puerto Varas, it is a beautiful place & the people are very nice.

Day 13

Rain has settled in and it has kept us inside for the morning – perfect opportunity for a sleep in and do some planning for the next legs of our trip. We learnt some fundamentals like; what is the exchange rate from Argentinian Peso to AUD? Visa requirements to enter Argentina? We are winging it but haven’t had any fails yet!

I did some research and found out there is an Ultra trail in Puerto Varas called Volcano Ultra trail. It is a 100km run around around Volcan Osorno! Link here. Who wants to be my support crew?

I really, really wish we had longer here but we need to get moving to make it in time for our trek in the Torres Del Paine National Park. I highly recommend Puerto Varas if anyone visits Chile. So much to see and do without the hectic amount of tourists.

We got to Puerto Montt and caught the 6 hour bus to Bariloche, checked into our hostel & had an early night. A little bit weary.

More photos located here.