January 31, 2024
“Finding fresh seafood in Chile is like finding chlamydia at Burning Man….it’s everywhere!”---Anthony Bourdain
Next to our hotel here in Puerto Varas, Chile, was a lovey seafood restaurant. We flew up to this town to the middle of this long thin country as a stepping off point before crossing the Andes again back into Argentina. We are at the half way point of the trip and both of us were a little tired after a long travel day.
The weather was markedly improved from the south. Warm clear skies, green trees, and only a gentle breeze greeted us. We found seats outside and looked forward to a nice meal before going to bed.
In many restaurants here they have abandoned traditional menus for scanned QR codes. Our cellular service was limited so we struggled to get the menu to appear. We notified the staff and with very poor, broken Spanish we tried to explain our problem. He nodded and seemed to appreciate the issue and told us he would return shortly.
He returned some time later smiling triumphantly and gave us another QR code that was huge, the size of a saucer, figuring the problem was we couldn’t work our phones and needed a frisbee sized target to aim at. I suppose he felt we were two old people who could not handle technology. When we tried to explain the size wasn’t the issue, that it was the cell reception, he left again. After a considerable amount of time he returned with another customer’s iPad and the menu pulled up.
We at last could order. The seafood was good.
Puerto Varas is a beautiful lake side town in central Chile that was founded in 1853 by German immigrants. At that time, Chile, wanting to compete with rival Argentina, put out a call for immigrants to help increase the population. Thousands of Germans made the long crossing and started new lives here.
The result is mixture Baroque, Rococo, and Bauernhaus /Chateau styles more common in the villages of the Rhineland than in South America. The community is a popular vacation spot for central Chile. It is easy to see why. Rose bushes are everywhere in full bloom giving the air a lovely floral scent. The weather is sublime with gentle breezes and clear skies. The area is much more akin to San Diego than anywhere else we have been. Ex pats flock here to live.
Puerto Varas sits on a large lake across from not one, but three active volcanoes.
You can from the shore Mount Osorno
Mount Tronador
and Mount Calbuco.
All three are active. They have been relatively quiet for many years.
At 6:04 pm on Wednesday April 22, 2015, with little to no warning, the top of the Calbuco volcano blew off releasing an enormous pyroclastic cloud of lethal super heated ash thousands of feet into the air. On the VEI scale (Volcanic Explosive Index) it was a level 4 out of 8 possible. It was considered catastrophic and only slightly behind the power of the Mt St Helen’s eruption in the 1980’s.
As we walked along the water’s edge, there were multiple signs offering tours to the slopes of that volcano. We declined and went looking for another seafood restaurant.
Tomorrow, we climb back into the bus for the trip across the mountains.
Comments