After leaving Argentina's Lakes District, we drove across the Andes Mountains in our motorhome Vdos, to enter Chile. Once in Chile, we drove around Lago (Lake) Puyehue and into the southern end of Chile's Lakes District. Our first stop there was near the town of Entre Lagos, where we spotted a stunning field of yellow.
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| Tulips and Volcano Puntiagudo near Entre Lagos, Southern Lakes District, Chile |
Further exploration showed thousands of tulips in full beautiful bloom. What made the picture more impressive, was the gigantic Volcano Puntiagudo behind, standing proud at 2,493 m.
We'd heard that many of the lakes in this area are accompanied by volcanoes, but this one surprised us seeming to be so close.
Driving south, we soon arrived at Lago Rupanco.
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| Lago Rupanco and Volcano Osorno, Southern Lakes District, Chile |
This lago has beautiful clear water, and from its shores we could see the Osorno Volcano (2,652 m). This volcano is one of the most famous in Chile and often called the "Fujiyama of South America," because of its similarity to the conical Japanese volcano, Mt Fuji.
From there, we continued south toward Lago Llanquihue, the second largest
lake in Chile. It was a lovely drive, and we were able to see another volcano beyond that lago too. It was Volcano Calbuco.
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| Lago Llanquihue and Volcano Calbuco, Southern Lakes District, Chile |
Calbuco is a rugged-topped volcano that is still quite active. The most recent activity was in April 2015 when it erupted with no warning, sending an ash cloud 15 km into the sky.
On this route, we soon arrived at the quaint village of Puerto Octay sitting on the
northern bank of Lago Llanquihue.
This whole area was settled by German families as a part of Chile’s drive to increase its population, at about the time of the German revolution of 1848–49. Its German heritage is reflected in the interesting architecture in Puerto Octay, such as its 2-storey wooden buildings.
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| Wooden architecture of Puerto Octay and Puerto Varas, Southern Lakes District, Chile |
Leaving there, we continued south to Puerto Varas on the
southwest bank of Lake Llanquihue. The architecture of Puerto Varas also reflects its German roots. This town dates back to 1853.
In Puerto Varas we found Camping Playa Niklitschek and planned to stay there for the night. It
was right down on the lake front, but unfortunately for us, it was in a state
of mayhem as they prepared for summer. There were pine trees being cut down,
tree roots everywhere, and earth churned up.
With the facilities not cleaned after the
weekend of campers and picnickers, we were again thankful to have our own on-board bathroom in Vdos.
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| Puerto Montt, Chilean Patagonia |
The camp was not a peaceful place and we couldn't bring ourselves to stay more
than one night, so continued south to Puerto Montt the next day. Puerto Montt is a port city with a population
of around 200,000.
We stopped for a good look around, then decided that, instead of turning around and going north to the other Chilean lakes, we would visit Isla de Chiloé (Chiloé Island).
Chiloé is known for its scenery, seafood and UNESCO World Heritage churches. It sits in the Pacific Ocean, just off the Southern Andes in southern Patagonia. It is Chile's second largest island after Tierra del Fuego (at Chile's southernmost tip).
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| Car ferry to Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
The Island is separated from Puerto Montt by the Chacao Strait. So we drove to Pargua near Puerto Montt, to get a car ferry to the island. The ferry took about half an hour to get there, and we disembarked at Chacao, a wee village of around 450 people that began life as a Spanish outpost in 1567.
We stopped at a very friendly and helpful
tourist office in nearby Ancud, and picked up some maps and addresses of campgrounds in
the area, planning to stay a while.
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| Fishing boats in Ancud on Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
Ancud, is a fishing town in the north of the island, that is now the second largest town on Chiloé.
We decided to stay at Hotel Arena Gruesas in Ancud, which has camping attached to it. We had to drive up some steep narrow
streets to find the campsite, and although
the ground was very muddy from recent rain, we managed to park on a
flatish-dryish site.
Finding a level site is always a challenge and
we often spend quite a bit of time going backwards and forwards so that the dining table, stove, and bed are fairly level. Also, our water pump seems to throw a
hissy-fit if the slope is too bad!
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| Shingle-clad houses in Ancud on Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
The next day we explored Ancud, with its old
Spanish fort, traditional shingle clad houses, and fishing boats.
A few days later, we drove southward down the coast to Punihuil to
see a penguin colony. Inconveniently, it started to rain heavily just as we were arriving.
Once in Punihuil, we discovered that the
road took us across a creek, then along a soggy beach where we would have to get a small boat to see the penguins.
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| Descent to Punihuil before the rain, Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
But the rain had transformed the creek into a raging river. After assessing the depth and speed of the
river, we decided we did not want drive across it, and also did not want to
risk getting bogged in the sand on the other side. So we called it quits on Punihuil, and
drove further south to see more of the island.
There are lots of little fishing villages all along the eastern coast of Chiloé. Finding a turn-off toward the coast, we decided to drive down the narrow road to see what was there.
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| Colourful fishing boats in Dalcahue, Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
We ended up in the lovely little fishing village of Dalcahue, a very tidy and well cared for village with an interesting
waterfront, and many brightly painted fishing boats tied up at the wharf.
The rain had not ventured this far south, so we
enjoyed a lovely walk around in the warm sunshine.
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| The wooden Church of Our Lady of Sorrows (UNESCO), Dalcahue, Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
Dalcahue has a lovely wooden church, Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Los Delores (Church of Our Lady of Sorrows), which dates back to 1893 and has a unique nine-arched portico.
There are many such beautiful and different churches on the island. They were built in the 18th and 19th centuries when the island was still part
of the Spanish crown possession.
They are classified as UNESCO World Heritage Sites for their cultural significance, amalgamating native and Spanish beliefs into the churches. They certainly were different and very interesting.
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| The road down to San Juan fishing boats, Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
As with several of the other fishing
villages we explored, San Juan is small, and fairly isolated. They are all off the central road
of the island, and down long narrow unmade roads to the coast.
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| San Juan fishing boats, Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
San Juan was a lovely part of the island in which to mosey about.
We carried on exploring, down more interesting narrow and
unsealed side roads, never quite sure where we were going. Over a few hours, we found several little settlements usually founded on
fishing. Often there were only a few houses and they were perched right on the waterfront.
The views throughout were fantastic, being a mix of emerald-green rolling hills, beautiful natural blue-water bays, multi-coloured fishing boats, and colourful wooden houses. We loved it.
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| The wooden Church of Our Lady of Graces (UNESCO), Nercón, Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
Toward the end of the day, we ended up in
Nercón, a tiny village in the hills that had an ancient wooden UNESCO listed
church.
In the Nercón area, we found Camping El
Chiloé. The camp was a lovely and we had it all to ourselves. It was a peaceful stop with clean facilities, and
wood-fired hot showers.
The next morning, we headed south again to
further explore, and particularly liked the wee town of Chonchi.
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| The wooden Church of Chonchi (UNESCO), Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
Chonchi is also a fishing village, with a lovely waterfront area and UNESCO wooden church. The Chonchi church, unlike many of the others
we had seen, was colourful in pale blue and yellow.
After that, we headed back up north to Castro,
the capital city of Chiloé. Although bigger than the other towns and villages
on the island, it still had a ‘village’ feel.
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| Castro street, Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
We liked its narrow streets that meander down to the water’s edge, and the old wood-clad shops. There was an interesting range of architecture, and a lovely UNESCO church.
In Castro we saw palafitos, traditional
wooden-shingled fishermen’s houses built on stilts over the water. Originally, these stilted palafitos would have been built to help protect the inhabitants from unfriendly animals and neighbours.
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| Palafito houses in Castro, Isla de Chiloé, Chilean Patagonia |
Leaving Castro, we drove back to the top of the island to catch the car ferry to return to Puerto Montt on the mainland, very happy with our exploration of Isla de Chiloé.
Back on the mainland after leaving the island, we drove toward central Chile to see more lakes, and volcanoes and do a bit of wine tasting.
The above blog is part of our 4-month tour of South America. The first blog on this tour is called "Buenos Aires here we come".