Puerto Montt to Temuco

It took only about 45 minutes from Chacao to Puerto Montt. Had paid 3 € for the highway, like in France or Italy. What can I say, it took me another 45 minutes to reach my parking lot near the Intendencia Regional de Los Lagos building.

Puerto Montt has a large industrial area with lots of stores and even more traffic. There were also roadworks and long traffic lights.

It only took me 15 minutes to get to the beach promenade. What can I say, with around 280'000 inhabitants, it is the 3rd largest city in South America for me.  On a cloudy day, it didn't exude that much charm. I strolled along the promenade to the Angelmo Fish Market, or should I say is very touristic. But I still had a good meal there, in a small restaurant where mom and dad cook and the daughter serves. Had Erizos (Loxechinus_albus) marinated in lemon juice with coriander and onions. Then I had a mussel stew with 6 different mussels. I was beginning to enjoy eating in South America.

Oh yes, I had a Pisco Sour beforehand as an aperitif, just like Ouzo in Greece. I bought Pisco and lemon the same day. I got Angostura bitter a few days later. My campervan version is

• 60 ml Pisco
• 30 ml fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• sparkling water
• ice

I actually wanted to finally see Palafitos, but I couldn't find them, even though they were supposed to be a tourist attraction in Angelmó! Instead, I found the bus station. What a busy place. 

In the city center, I tried to buy a luggage scale, but to no avail. Apparently Chileans don't need such things. I was advised to look for a fish scale for anglers.  Because there was a lot of fishing here.

After 5 hours in Puerto Montt, I tried shopping in a Unimarc. Unfortunately in the outskirts of town at around 5pm it was very busy. With some effort, I made it through to a Lider super market and onto the R7 towards Parque Nacional Alerce Andino. I was aware of only a few pitches and in the rain I looked for the nearest one at the entrance. 

After a good night's sleep, I went to the entrance at 9am, paid my 7'800 CLP and set off on my little hike to Laguna Sargazo and the Mirador Condor Laguna Sargazo. To cut a long story short, I didn't manage to take any good photos of 4'000 year old larch trees, nor did I come across any Pumas, Condors or Pudu deer. But it was a nice couple of hours and good weather for a change.  

After the national park, I wanted to see volcanoes up close and there were 3 options. The Osorno, the Calbuco and the Tornador in the distance. The southern shore of Lago Llanquihue was a good starting point. Campsites were in short supply. I chose a campsite by the lake with a view of the Osorno. When I turned onto the R 225, I was also on the Red Interlago. I was to find more lakes, volcanoes and attractions along this road. At Lago Llanquihue, things got a little more sophisticated. Golf course, yacht clubs, restaurants, cycle paths, everything a bit more upmarket. It also got more expensive! My campsite didn't offer much, but cost €34. Hot showers only between 8:00 - 10:00 and 20:00 - 22:00

On the western edge of Lago Llanquihue lies Frutillar, a description I liked: “Picture-Perfect German Town”. The name comes from the Chilean strawberry (Spanish: frutilla chilena).  Frutillar was founded by German settlers, has a Museo Colonial Alemán, German farmhouses made of wood, a glass theater on the lake, etc. Not my thing. Not my thing.

Volcano Osorno was at its best that day. After a bit of research, I knew that you can get quite far up by car <Volcán Osorno Centro de Montaña> and if you're lazy, you can take the lift even further up. It's a ski resort. Otherwise it's about 1,500 meters in altitude over 5 km. 

If that was too much for me, then it should be the Crater Rojo, 130 vertical meters over 1.6 km. The routes at Lago Todos Los Santos were out of the question for me due to their length.

With a Pisco Sour in my hand, I admired the colors of the sunset on the Osorno.

But I had seen the weather forecast and knew it was going to rain. It started during the night. At 9:00 in the morning, the summit of Osorno was shrouded in clouds and the next thunderstorm was coming from the west.  As I didn't feel like paying another €30 for the campsite - there wasn't much on offer - I continued along the Red Interlago. First stop, Las Cascadas. As the name suggests, a few houses with a waterfall.

Somewhere on the way north I came to the Región de Los Ríos.

I passed Lago Rupanco and Lago Puyehue that day. I ended up at Lago Ranco. The weather was modest all day. Cloudy, it rained from time to time and the mountains were shrouded in clouds. At times, the landscape reminded me of the Auvergne or the Allgäu. I didn't see anything of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano.

At a snack bar, I tried the Chilean version of Salchipapas (french fries with a sausage), a typical German dish from the past. The chips were not crispy, instead were swimming in fat. Let's put it this way, I won't try it a second time. 

In the afternoon, I found my pitch on the Rio Calcurrupe, which flows into Lago Ranco. Around 6 p.m. the sky cleared and the anglers flocked to the Rio to catch trout or salmon. But no one had much success. Fly fishing with a Pisco Sour in your hand is better than standing in cold water!

The next morning, the clouds were dark again and the predicted rain was on its way. 

I had read that the south of Chile, i.e. Patagonia, is a cool and rainy region with very changeable weather. Summers are said to be cool and cloudy. 

I can fully subscribe to that. If the best time to visit is from December to February, I wouldn't want to travel here in the other months! I would like to add that I felt better on the Pacific coast than in the Andes.

So I made my way back to the coast. I took the T551 through Llifén and Futrono. There wasn't much to see of Lago Ranco as the forests mostly obscured the lake. The 2 villages didn't really knock me off my pedestal either, as you can see from the fact that I didn't take a single photo!

At some point I left the Red Interlago, turned onto the T625 and drove through farmland to the R5. Hilly landscape, large fields, hay and straw, but not much else. The picture changed a little in Reumén. It went uphill into the woods before Valdivia. There seemed to be someone making wood or selling woodwork in front of every second house.

I drove to Valdivia, the capital of the Región de Los Ríos, to do some shopping and refuel. Apart from the Spanish fortresses (Castillo de San Luis de Alba de Amargos, Castillo de Niebla and Castillo San Pedro de Alcantara), there wasn't much to see in Valdivia (population approx. 150'000). My detour to Rio Calle-Calle along Avenida Arturo Prat didn't disprove this either. I would describe the city as sober and somewhat run-down. 

So I took a leisurely drive on the R202 to San José de Mariquina, but didn't see much on the way either. Neither on the road nor in the town. Only from Mehuín on the T270 along the coast did things become more varied. 

At the village of Queule, I entered the Región de La Araucanía. Araucanía, by the way, means “the place inhabited by the Araucanos”, which is what the Spanish called the Mapuche people. 

From here to Playa Porma it was cultivated farmland, swamps, rivers and small villages. Every now and then a mirador, a ferry to cross a river or a snack bar to buy empanadas or fruit/vegetables/potatoes.

Playa Porma was a revelation for me. It is also called the refuge on the Araucanian coast <Escondite en la Costa de Araucanía>. And rightly so, I would say! This approximately 15 km long stretch of beach between the mouth of the Rio Toltén and the Rio Rucacura is characterized by its black sand, blue sea and eroded cliffs. The cliffs were and are formed by the strong surf of the Pacific. At high tide, the waves crash against the foot of the cliffs, 15 meters below my campervan, so to speak!

Despite the strong surf, the wind and the low water temperature, I did see people swimming here, but I tended to watch the fishermen and bathers from the cliffs.

I couldn't imagine that even one peso had been spent on tourism and gastronomy here. The restaurant was closed, there was no campsite and the mini mercado was for the locals. The closer you get to the beach itself, the more broken pieces and garbage you find on the cliffs! 

1 km further north, it was the perfect place to enjoy beautiful sunsets or simply spend a day by the sea. There was only one other camper van on the cliffs next to me. So it was perfect for relaxing. I had found my spot for the weekend on the cliffs, about 5 m above the Pacific. It was nice weather for a change. 

After 3 days, I had almost no water left and the bin and toilet bags were full. So, out of necessity, I decided to solve my problem. I found garbage cans relatively quickly, there were some not far from the beach.

For drinking water, I had to drive to Puerto Domínguez.  After an hour, I had water and a recommendation from the tourist office. First I would go to Playa Puaucho, if I didn't like it there, it would be Playa Maule and Playa Stefyan's turn. In my opinion, Playa Puaucho was just as great as Playa Porma, so I stayed there, watched the locals fishing and enjoyed the day. 

One of them recommended that I should definitely go to Boca Budi and eat fish there. So I already had a plan for the next few days. 

I drove relaxed over very well-maintained gravel roads towards Boca Budi. It was harvest time for early potatoes, which were harvested here by hand and with a hoe. Which is probably what the farmers here did for the rest of the summer, as the grain fields had already been harvested. On a Monday morning, the area along the coast was pretty sleepy and Boca Budi had a “day off”. None of the 3 restaurants were open and so I drove the 70 km to Temuco.

I had read about the old Mapuche house form, the ruka, but had only seen one that was used as tourist accommodation. The ruka was round and made of mud and reeds. The only room had no windows and only one door.

The landscape only changed a little as I drove past Carahue. When you drive into Carahue, there are old locomotives on the green in the middle of the road, the Monumento Nacional Locomóviles de Carahue, of which you can see a few more on the rest of the journey to Temuco. 

I wanted to know why and found the right museum. In 1999, a mayor of Carahue had the idea of building a museum of the steam age here. The railroad museum, the Museo de Trenes, is right at the entrance to the town after the bridge. Hence the many steam engines. Some of the machines are still working, the employee told me

I found a parking space in Carahue and was one of many people bustling through the “city”. I found my empanadas and was happy. After Carahue it became wooded and I saw sawmills and stores selling wood.

There's so much in the guidebooks about cities with little to say, but I didn't find Carahue mentioned anywhere

45 minutes later I was in Temuco, what a contrast. The capital of the Región de La Araucanía (approx. 240'000 inhabitants) was unlike anything I had ever seen in Chile before. Wide modern streets, modern houses, large supermarkets, McDoof and co. and so much hustle and bustle. Maybe it was the sunshine! But I didn't find much else worth going back to Temucu for. The first American-style shopping mall was quite nice, but... 
 
But I didn't go to Temuco because of the city, but because of the volcanoes. There are several large active volcanoes to the east of the city, such as Villarrica (2'840 m.a.s.l.) and Llaima (3'125 m.a.s.l.) and even more inactive ones.