Lake Crossing to Chile
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History begins like in a beautiful dream in the year 1913 when a group of fearless pioneers crossed the Andes mountain ridge through a border path linking Peulla/Chile with Bariloche/Argentina. It began as a crazy idea but nowadays this is a great tourist attraction between the two countries. Within the beauty of the ecologically balanced settings of the Argentine and Chilean national parks, you will sail on three lakes and feel the impact of their ever changing colours and marvel at the breathtaking Calbuco and Osorno volcanoes and pass by mounts Tronador, Puntiagudo, and Catedral. The crossing can be done from Puerto Montt in Chile as well as from San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina. The tour starts with a morning departure from Bariloche by bus, bounding the beautiful Nahuel Huapi lake up to Puerto Pañuelo. There you board a modern catamaran and you will cross the blue waters of Nahuel Huapi lake. A short bus ride is done from Puerto Blest through native woods of Alerces. Soon you will arrive to the shore of Frias lake, where another ferry is waiting. At Puerto Frías there is an obliged stop for migration and customs paper work on the Argentine side. At this point you are already in the middle of the Valdivian jungle. It is one of the places with more rain in Argentina. It rains 3,000mm per year, in average. Therefore, be prepared for rain showers. Enormous trees like the coihue and alerce (or larch) grow in this jungle; thanks to the humidity a proliferation of herbs, ferns, moss, and fungus can be found. The international border at the Perez Rosales pass is 4km by bus from Puerto Frías. The journey continues for 28km along the forest up to the rural village Peulla. Here you will have to stop at the Chilean customs and migration offices. The village is 976m above sea level and does not have more than 800 inhabitants. The trip continues with a 2-hour navigation on the lake De Todos los Santos, also called lake Esmeralda. You will be impressed by the emerald green of its waters, as well as by the snow covered top of the Puntiagudo volcano (2,493m), mount Techado, the Margarita island, and the other snow covered peaks, which includes for example the impressive Osorno volcano (2,652m). At the end of this lake arm you will reach Port Petrohue, located within the Vicente Perez Rosales national park, the oldest Chilean park with a surface of 251,000 hectares. It is famous for 7 waterfalls, formed by the Petrohue river. The area is dominated by steep cliffs, carved and pushed sediments and rocks. These are all testimonies of the glaciers existing during the ice-age. The journey continues to Ensenada. This is a small rural settlement at the foothills of the Osorno volcano. From here onwards, you travel along a paved road which goes round lake Llanquihue. Before your eyes, the landscape transforms into fields of all the imaginable hues of green and wooden constructions with wooden shingled roofs. After 64km you reach the cities Puerto Varas and further south Puerto Montt, both lying on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. |
