Puerto Varas is a spectacular lake side town which is known for its German architecture and traditions. It sits on Lake Llanquihue and offers unparalleled views of both Volcan Osorno and Volcan Calbuco. The sun shone each day, and the town couldn’t have been more picturesque. The old German style house we stayed in was exactly what we needed with a huge modern kitchen. We cooked dinner a few times and enjoyed not having to go out for every meal. The walk to and from the house into town lead us through a common walk way planted with hedges, almost 2 metres tall, of hydrangeas. In the town itself, there were hydrangea shrubs and roses bushes on every nature strip and in every corner. It really was gorgeous.

We arrived late in the afternoon after another bus ride and decided to head straight out for a walk to the lake. We walked a few kilometres before finding a bar with uninterrupted views over the lake and volcanoes. The obvious decision was to stop for cheese, beer and gin cocktails and soak it all in.

We caught up with Neil and Manon again day two and hired bikes together with the hope of riding a scenic path around the lake. We set out and soon realised the trail out of town was in fact not next to the lake, but alongside the busy highway. We had to ride on the road which was relatively unsafe and extremely noisy. Absolutely not the charming ride we were after. We quickly decided to abort mission and rode back towards town, stopping for an extremely long lunch where I had my first glass of white wine since leaving Australia. It was delicious. After lunch it was time to visit the Chester Brewery. There were many ways to get there but the quickest by far was along the old train line. Riding the bikes along the huge rail road stones and gravel made for an extremely uncomfortable ride. As we pulled into the brewery I clearly remember stating I was not going back the way we had come.

We received a warm welcome from the Canadian owner of the boutique beer company and participated in a beer tasting. Unbeknownst to me, the Che’s IPA that I selected as my favourite had an alcohol content of 6.8%. Whilst basking in the sun and vista, playing lawn games and entertaining the dog which had followed us from town, I managed to polish off three IPA pints and didn’t realise how much it had affected me until I got back on my wheels. The brewery owner was leaving on his bike at the same time as us, so he kindly offered to guide us back into town…. Along the rail way line. Reluctantly I jumped on the bike but didn’t last long before my first tumble. I don’t even remember what happened, I just lost balance and off I went. After gentlemen Neil helped me up and back on my bike I was off again, until our stray dog companion ran in front of my wheels and threw me off for the second occasion, though this time I was off the trail completely and in a bush! At that I made the executive decision that my riding days were over and a walk back to town with my bleeding knee was the most appropriate way home! The team went out in sympathy and we all walked our bikes along the tracks back to town!

‘Casa de Te’ at the lavender farm in Frutillar was the next days destination. Adam and I squashed ourselves into the bursting local bus and arrived into the quaint little town, with a happening lake side beach, cafes and huge modern community centre. It seemed like the type of town you could easily stay a few days. We walked about 3 kms up an unmade gravel road out of town to reach the lavender farm. It was a charming white weather board building, furnished with vintage armchairs on the front porch and decorated with antique tea pots and teacups inside. The back deck overlooked the flowering purple lavender plantation, a paddock of curious horses and distant lake views. Where there was no lavender the garden was planted with bright dahlias and roses and a group of multi coloured bee hives. We parked ourselves on the back deck with a great view, drank multiple cups of tea, and ate salmon sandwiches and carrot cake. As with every other day, the sun was shining, and the day could not have been more perfect.

Back in Puerto Varas we hired kayaks with Manon and Neil and went out on the lake for a bit of exercise and to see the town from a different perspective. The lake was a hub of activity with sail boats, jet skis and other kayakers. As we had cooked for Manon and Neil twice in Pucon, they were desperate to pay us back, so that night we headed over to their social, and extremely welcoming hostel, for communal home-made woodfire pizza night! Neil was extremely considerate and even made me an onion and garlic free passata to go on my pizza base. There was an unspoken competition going on between Neil and a young German back packer as to who had made the best pizza dough. In our opinion, Neil’s ‘Jamie Oliver’ recipe was the winner!
We were due for a slow day, so our third day involved a leisurely stroll through a privately owned park. The park itself was unremarkable so luckily, we had prepacked lunch and managed to sit with a view over the lake and eat our delicious empanadas.

Our next adventure was to Patagonia, we were going to miss the sunshine and warmth of Puerto Varas, we would happily visit again.