puerto varas

After 12 hours of traveling across the Andes, I wanted to rest for a day or so in Puerto Varas. It is a small, tourist town on the shore of Lago Llanquilhue (the third largest lake in South America!). Around the 1850s, the Chilean government wanted more people to settle in the remote area of the lake district, so they offered land to Germans willing to immigrate. There are several historic buildings reflecting the German settlement. Many of the homes are made of native wood and have a distinct wood-shingle siding. I walked along the path that goes by all the historically significant structures, the old Catholic church, up to the forested hill where fuschias were growing wild, ate a soy burger, and then enjoyed the twilight over the lake with the two volcanoes looming across the water.