Chile Guide
The Lake District
Lago Llanquihue
An immense inland sea of 870 square kilometres, LAGO LLANQUIHUE boasts a backdrop for one of the icons of the Lake District, the Mount Fuji-like Volcán Osorno (2661m), in all its stunning, symmetrical perfection. The sight of it is all the more extraordinary because the lake is not surrounded by the extreme country you normally associate with volcanoes, but by gently rolling pastures scattered with black and white Friesian cows and stalls selling German pastries and smoked trout. The easiest way here from Lago Rupanco is to travel back to Osorno and then down the Panamericana 55km – you'll spot the lake from the road.
The little villages around Lago Llanquihue differ greatly. Frutillar Bajo, on the lake's western shore, is a summer holiday resort beloved by Chileans; Puerto Octay, to the north, is a neat little Bavarian-looking town; and bustling Puerto Varas, in the south, is fast challenging Pucón as the Lake District's adventure tourism centre. One thing that unites them is their shared German heritage, a result of an influx of German and Swiss settlers in the mid-nineteenth century. Some people still speak German rather than Spanish at home and live in houses filled with portraits of flaxen-haired, pale-eyed European men in high-collared apparel.
By the time you come to the village of Ensenada, on the far eastern shore of the lake, forest has overtaken dairy fields and the land begins to rise as you enter the foothills of the Andes. This forest extends to the border, and is protected by the Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales. The national park is a favourite scenic route into Argentina, as it contains the magical green waters of Lago Todos Los Santos, which offers a spectacular trip to Argentina using a combination of ferries across the lake and buses leaving from Puerto Montt.