It was a typically rainy day today in Chile’s Lake District, dropping just a bit of the 98” of annual precipitation that keeps the region so green.

Clouds didn’t lift during the frequent dry spells, blocking our view of the famous 8,700‘  Volcanó Osorno. It was last known to erupt in 1835, when Charles Darwin watched it from the deck of The Beagle. Active fumaroles and other volcanoes in the area (of 2000 K in the country) keep scientists on their toes. This was the area of the world’s strongest-ever eruption, which you may remember from 2015. A 9.5 on the Richter Scale, the measurement caused the scale levels to be revised.

At Osorno, we took an incredibly winding road up almost halfway to the very chilly, wet, and windy ski lift area called La Burbuja (The Bubble) to try and wait out the weather. Our only success was access to bathrooms and really good hot chocolate.

Our informative guide, Andres, kept us well-informed and imparted an incredible amount of cultural and geographical information. Beginning in the charming town of Puerto Varas, we took the beautiful drive along the shore of Lake Llanquihue, through the village of Ensenada (which had three feet of ash from the last eruption), for another 14 miles to Las Cascades.

The weather took a break, allowing us a nice visit to the Vincent Pedro Rosales National Park, to the Senderos Saltos de Petrohué. Beautiful and well-maintained, multiple walkways allowed a variety of views of the water surging over basalt bedrock, creating whirlpools and rapids.   

The rain kicked back in as we headed back to Puerto Varas for a delicious salmon lunch. This looks like a very affluent town and is clearly a tourist destination. There are many new buildings, international hotels, apartment buildings, a casino, high-end shops, and loads of restaurants. The central square was really pretty, but the rain did interfere with my ability to get pictures.    

We were wandering around an alcove of artisan shops when we found a well-fed cat dozing. I chatted with the ladies in the closest shop and found out his name is Kahn. So sorry for not getting pictures of all the fluffy dogs we’ve seen. I guess today the smart dogs were staying out of the rain.