Petrohue Falls, Orsono Vocano and Puerto Varas

     6 AM comes early on a cruise ship! Since we had elected to take an all day tour and we had to tender into Porte Montt, we needed to be ready to go by 7 AM. Needless to say we were facing a rather long day.

The Orsono Volcano

This area is called the Lakes District. It was settled by German settlers in the mid 1860's and many of the building, especially in the town of Puerto Varas displays a very German look. Our tour took us to a waterfall close to the volcanic mountain that we were to visit. The guide was very good although he would use Spanish words for things and sometimes that was a bit hard to understand. The worse part was the pronunciation. He used Spanish for English words.

The first stop was the Petrohue Falls. The waterfall was more a series of rapids carved through the volcanic basalt lava flow. The dark rock presented an interesting formation. However, it is very dry at this time of year and the “falls” were a bit low to say the least.

The second stop was at the Osorno Volcano, the main reason why we picked this 

Walking On The volcano

particular tour. It is a large composite cone with glaciers at the top. It reminded us of Mount Fuji – same type and shape. The volcano last erupted in the 1830's and was observed by Charles Darwin. In the morning as we were driving towards the area it was sunny and bright. We could almost see the top of the cone. By the time we got there in the late morning the clouds had moved in, the wind picked up and it was raining. The ski lift where we stopped was about half way up the mountain and the combination of wind rain and altitude made for a less than perfect setting. Although we had plenty of warm clothes, it was still a place where you took the photo and retreated to the bus in a hurry!

Lunch of soup and Chilean farm raised salmon was very tasty. We stopped at an old German restaurant filled with antiques. The meal was good, the company was friendly and the Chilean red wine was even better. After lunch we headed for a small town called Puerto Varas, the centre of the lakes tourist district. We had about 30 minutes in the town and that was plenty. As a tourist centre it left much to be desired.  

What Else Cold!

A casino and 2 nice hotels on the lake were the highlights. The crafts area was basically in an alley with every shop selling exactly the same thing. We did manage to find a grocery store to buy some wine. The Concho E Toro we bought cost about $3.50 a bottle! Not all was lost in the town. A short ride got us back to the tenders after 4 pm with the ship set to sail at 4:30.

Although there are shows and entertainment going on around the ship, we decided to make an early night of it.