Lake District - Puerto Montt

Our first day ashore was in Puerto Montt. I had arranged via the internet a tour with GV Tours. I had decided to use GV rather than the cruise excursion because it was half price and  it included lunch. It worked out well. I have to be honest and tell you that Puerto Montt and the small towns and cities we drove through are not prettiest you have ever seen. Places are dirty, rundown and generally just shabby looking. Thankfully the locals are friendly and very pleasant. The grasses in yards and in fields is yellow and scrubby. The Lake district about 45 kms from the city is a popular summer resort area for Chileans. The first pic is from a small town on a large lake. The temperature of the water was 11 degrees Celsius which our tour guide said was quite nice for swimming. Other than a few hearty souls later in the day we did not see many people swimming or doing anything on the beach. February is a very popular time to be on summer holidays.

One large city on the lake we visited was Pont Varos, the City of Roses, so named because all the streets have roses. Well technically they all do have roses but they are mostly dried up, small rose bushes with hardly any flowers or buds on the plants.

The other curious thing is that there is quite a noticeable German presence in this area. For some reason the Chilean government back in the mid 1800’s attracted Germans to the area to develop the land. There influence remains to this day especially in some of the homes and buildings that look like they should be in Bavaria.

Chile also has many stray dogs roaming their streets. The pic here is if one of the many you notice. They are friendly and if you pay any attention to them they follow you around as you walk about.