Chile Guide
The Lake District
Osorno
As with the Siete Lagos, the only way of getting south from Lago Ranco is to head back to the Panamericana. The 50-kilometre road west of Lago Ranco village joins the highway at the unremarkable town of Río Bueno, 30km south of which is OSORNO.
Despite being founded in one of the best defensive positions of all the Spaniards' frontier forts, Osorno was regularly sacked by Mapuche Indians from 1553 until 1796, at which point Chile's governor, Ambrosio O'Higgins, ordered it to be resettled. From tentative beginnings, it has grown into a thriving city mainly due to the industry of European settlers who felled the forests and began to develop the great dairy herds that form the backbone of the local economy today.
Osorno is an agricultural city: it's almost easier to buy a tractor here than to cash a traveller's cheque, and it has little for the tourist – except buses. As the transport hub for the southern Lake District and starting point for the region's main road into Argentina, it has an abundance of public transport, making it a snap to visit Osorno's surrounding attractions – Lago Puyehue in the cordillera; Parque Nacional Puyehue, one of Chile's most-visited national parks; Volcán Antillanca, which boasts some of the best skiing south of Santiago; and quiet, little-visited Lago Rupanco. And if you've had enough of mountains and lakes for the moment, to the west there are the long sandy beaches on the Pacific coast around Bahía Mansa.