The town is located on the shore of Llanquihue Lake, the largest lake that's entirely located in Chile, and like the other towns around the lake, it has a strong German influence. This is because thousands of Germans emigrated to the area in the 19th century, and built many German-style buildings.
The hotel where we stayed is one of them! We chose to stay at the Radisson Park Inn, which is one of the more reasonably-priced hotels in Puerto Varas. It's a very cosy place with wood panelling and underfloor heating, and it definitely gave us that sense of Gemütlichkeit!
But the most famous building in Puerto Varas is definitely the church, Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, which we went to see on the first full evening of our holiday. This church features in most of the professional photos you can find of Puerto Varas, and it's easy to see why - it's very pretty and very German looking!
Afterwards we had a walk down to the lake, where we found this amphitheatre and a shining statue of a cross on the other side of the water.
We explored around the lake some more on our last morning.
Naturally, we saw a couple of German-style buildings!
But one of the most interesting buildings has to be the Pablo Fierro Museum, a house that looks like a boat and has lots of unusual decorations.
One thing we missed in Puerto Varas was seeing the Osorno volcano across the lake - it was nearly always covered by cloud, and we only managed to see it very briefly while on the minibus to Chiloé.
But the lake on its own was still beautiful to see, and we even paddled in it despite the autumn weather. A nice dog decided to join us!
Puerto Varas is considered to be the touristic capital of the south of Chile, and it's easy to see why!
Next I'll be writing about our afternoon in Frutillar: one of the most beautiful towns we've ever visited...
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