We slept well after the initial burst of travel, heat, and sightseeing and were much refreshed by the time morning rolled around. After a few espressos, we Ubered back to the Santiago airport for our next flight, on LATAM Airlines, taking us 1,000 kilometers further south to the city of Puerto Montt. For just $10 extra, we each got a window seat on the side of the plane facing the Andes Mountains. Spectacular!
Glacier-topped Andes – The closest volcano is smoking
Chile's Lake District
Puerto Montt (pop. 250,000) is the largest city in southern Chile and a good place to rent a car to drive the Carretera Austral. Months earlier, we'd reserved an SUV with an automatic transmission through Econorent. The high ground clearance of an SUV is needed for this road, but 4WD isn't necessary.
Since we'd be taking the rental car into Argentina as well, I also had to secure from Econorent a permiso internacional, or cross-border permit. This has to be done via email approximately two weeks in advance. I was mostly confident that the paperwork would be in order when we arrived, but it was a relief when I finally had it in my hands.
The car: A white Volkswagen Taos SUV with just 1,907 kilometers on the odometer. The cost: a grand total of $943 for 13 days, including the $117 fee for the permiso internacional. Believe me, we put more than $943 of wear and tear on that poor car.
2-wheel drive Volkswagen Taos SUV
Instead of staying in Puerto Montt, we opted to spend the night instead in the smaller nearby city of Puerto Varas (pop. 40,000), on the scenic shore of Lago Llanquihue. We chose the Park Inn by Radisson largely for its private parking lot in this hard-to-park town. The view from our room was outstanding! This was our last hotel until we returned to Santiago at the end of the trip. In the smaller settlements further south, we'd be staying in private cabañas, one B&B, a couple of apartments, and even a shipping container.
At 4:00 we hit the Park Inn's restaurant for our first meal of the day. Our teenage waiter spoke very good English with an American accent. We asked him where he learned to speak so well, and he told us he picked it up from video games. Who would've thought??
Puerto Varas from our window
It was a short walk through town to the shore of Lago Llanquihue, the second largest lake in Chile. The perfect cone of Volcan Osorno across the water dominates every view. The temperature this evening was very comfortable, around 80 degrees, and lots of people were out enjoying the lake.
Volcan Osorno and Lago Llanquihue
Jana vs the Volcano
Later, we returned to the hotel restaurant for something to drink. Calafate ale is made from the calafate berry, native to Patagonia. This became a trip favorite. The calafate berry resembles a juniper or small blueberry, and we later found and sampled some of the berries growing wild. There's a legend that says that anyone who eats a calafate berry will return to Patagonia again. I hope it's true!
Cerveza Austral Calafate Ale
Mileage: 23 km