Well, this one is going to be short and sweet. I spent a total of two days in Puerto Varas and it rained both days. In fact, as I walked into my hostel, soaked only after a three block walk from the bus station, I asked the German at the front desk what the weather looked like for the next couple of days. He pulled up the 2-week weather forecast and it was nothing but rain. Then, as if to emphasize that fact, he said in a deadpan, heavily accented voice, "Yea, it looks like a lot of raining." "Well, OK, we'll see what happens," I thought.
One thing that is awesome about Chile (among many) is the fact that because it is such a long country running North and South that it has an very wide variety of landscapes. In the North you have desert, the Central has mountains, and in the South you have beautiful, lush forests. Unfortunately for the South, that also means a lot of rain year 'round.
Puerto Varas is similar to Pucon in that it has the small Colorado resort town feel and look to it. Additionally there are several outdoor sports (canyoning, rafting, hiking) you can do when the weather isn't bad.
My first night I met a British couple in their early thirties who are on sabbatical from work and traveling around the world for a year. Pretty cool if you ask me. I didn't even know that the British got sabbaticals from corporate jobs. Lucky bastards!
There was a free concert going in the town center so we went to that. It was a really famous Chilean (well, famous here), but I forgot their name. Not exactly my type of music, but I appreciated their professionalism.
The next day I woke up and it was relatively clear outside, so I decided to take a bus out to Petrohue, a small town about an hour away from Puerto Varas. It is supposed to be a beautiful area...when it's not extremely cloudy. In Petrohue you can hike around Volcano Orsono. Unfortunately for me, once I stepped off of the bus it started drizzling. I decided to muscle through it, and I hiked for about an hour and a half before it starting pouring off and on, so I decided to return and took the bus back. Because of the cloud cover, I couldn't see the volcano, or too far across the beautifully turquoise lake.
Later that evening, I made dinner and spent the remainder of the night chatting up the British couple from the previous night as well as a Dutch couple.
The next day, I was off to Isla de Chiloe!
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