Puerto Varas, Chile - 10 January 2013

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Bags are supposed to be out by 8:45, which I did after I had breakfast.  I checked my e-mail and then packed my carry-on.  We loaded on the bust at 9:45 and headed to the airport.  Brilliant me forgot about my swiss army knife and it was confiscated.  I felt badly since I’ve had it for many years.  Perhaps it is time for me to buy a new one.  I got on the plane and am stuck with a window seat.  Since the flight was only about an hour and a half, it wasn’t so bad.  I was in a position to see some of the Chilean volcanoes as we flew south.  The distance was about 400 miles.

From the Plane, one of Chile's 2,000 volcanoes

 Another shot of the volcanoe from the plane

Things were well organized when we landed.  One of the porters at the airport took off all bags with the orange Smartour tags and then they were taken out to the bus.  My only job was to identify my bag. 

On the way to Puerto Varas, we had a guide who spoke about the area.  The Santiago area was settled by Europeans around 1500, but this area was not settled until much later.  The native tribes fought the settlers and the army was brought in around the 1800’s.  Chile was anxious to have the area settled and they offered settlers 300 acres if they came.  Initial settlers were mostly German.  Later other nationalities followed.  It was hinted that since this area was so remote that Nazi war criminals came here.  The German influence is very clear in the area particularly in the way buildings are constructed.

 Puerto Varas panorama

I was told that this area is famous for its fruit, which is sold on the street.  I wandered looking for one of the sellers.  I stopped first at the crafts market, but could find nothing that I wanted to buy for family.  I found a man selling berries, but he only had strawberries and another berry that I don’t like.  I wanted blueberries.  He pointed me to another vendor who not only had blue berries, but cherries as well.  I headed over to the lake, where I found a bench and sat and ate them.  A lot of people were swimming in the lake which I was told was about 66 degrees F, which is a bit chilly.  I then wandered around a while looking for souvenir type stores in hopes of finding something suitable for my family, but didn’t. I headed up to my room at about 5:30 to get ready for dinner.

Craft Market

The strong German influence in this part of Chile

Fire Engine

Local Church which looks like it belongs in Germany or Switzerland

Another view of the craft market

We had a cocktail ten minutes followed by a nice dinner.  I sat with the South African contingent, who currently live in Texas. Apparently Annette Kavin has a daughter who lives in Great Neck not too far from Marla.  The daughter and her husband are Dodi and Jonathan Spielman.

After dinner, we started on a walk, but it was a bit chilly and I didn’t have a jacket.  I came up and checked my e-mail.  I almost forgot to up-load my pictures.  I had a wake-up call for 6:00 am since the luggage had to go at 7:00 am