We planned for some relaxing days at a lakeside resort town of Chile. What I didn’t know was that, this should be the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen at the lakeside.
===== From Wikipedia =====
Puerto Varas, also known as “La ciudad de las rosas” or “the city of roses”, is a city and commune located in the southern Chilean province of Llanquihue, in the Los Lagos Region.
The city is famous for its German traditions, its natural environment, and its popularity as a tourist destination. It enjoys a scenic location close to mountains, lakes, forests and national parks. It is located 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the city of Puerto Montt on the shore of Llanquihue Lake, the second largest lake in Chile. The conical Osorno Volcano and the snowcapped peaks of Mt. Calbuco and Mt. Tronador are clearly visible from the lakefront.
It was a 5-hour flight from Easter Island back to Santiago. By the time we arrived Santiago, it was already late at night. But next day early morning, we would take another short flight to Puerto Varas, so we just booked a hotel near the airport, which had free Pickup & Dropoff from/to the airport. It was only a night of sleep. We had a drink, some snacks, and went to bed.
Next day was actually rainy, when we arrived Puerto Varas. I remembered when we took the car to our hotel, I could only see grey sky…
However, as soon as we arrived our beautiful hotel, our mood immediately lifted! It was a GORGEOUS hotel of a hundred year old! Only the crystal lamp at the lobby, the elderly hotel stuffs in beautiful uniforms already screaming CLASS!! The photo hanged on the wall suddenly brought me back to a hundred year ago, it was like suddenly returned to the past by time machine.
Indeed, our room has a big window facing the lake. The lake and the beach was just across the street. The bedsheets —- I had stayed in many 4-star or 5-star hotels with my parents since I was young, but I had never seen white bedsheets being ironed and made so perfectly, I could still see the iron lines, and could not find a single ｗrinkle on it! A hundred year ago, this must has been a high-class hotel, and how lucky we can stay here today!!
Although the hotel wasn’t very big, it had many elegantly-decorated lounges, tearooms, reading rooms… Unlike the new-built business hotels that I often stayed, this hotel, no matter the handles of the stairs, an armchair or a tea table, everything looked old but classy, beautifully-made and well-maintained. Every hallway or corner looked like movie setting. We couldn’t stop snapping photos.
We enjoyed the free welcome drinks at their quiet tearoom. The hotel staff sitting at the bar looked like a movie setting. We carefully looked at the old framed photos hanging on the walls, and imagined the life of the family who owned this hotel, the balls and weddings held in this hotel a hundred year ago. It was amazing to have a peek at the lifestyle a hundred year ago…
It was still raining outside, but we finally stepped out of the hotel, walked around the town to look for shops. Even on a rainy day, the lakeside was still beautiful. The quiet park and the the ducks swimming in the lake still looked welcoming.
Indeed, this is a resort town. I found many brand shops (Merrell, Patagonia, Specialized…) in this small town, and a few mountain shops too. I guess people often stay a few days rest in this town, when they go hiking or skiing at the nearby mountains.
At night, we had a quiet dinner at an elegant restaurant nearby. It was decorated with many illumination lights. When we pushed open the door, there were already many customers happily chatting over their dinner tables, and with red & green colored napkins, wines and dishes, I almost thought it was Christmas!! (the fact that it was August!!) After dinner, we walked back to our beautiful hotel. It was just so peaceful.
I really wanted to enjoy this lakeside view to the most, so next morning, I set up the alarm to wake up in the dark, quietly got dressed when my friend was still sleeping, I stepped into the cold, when some of the ground was still wet, and started my morning jog!!
I always love running at night. I do not mind or feel scared of running in the dark. I love the quietness and peacefulness. The world always look so different in the dark, even look magnificant in the dark. Puerto Varas did not disappoint me. I loved it. Even the cold was just right. This is the world that only I could see.
When I returned to our room, it was already block sunlight. Puerto Varas finally beated the rain, and the sun returned to us! We enjoyed the buffet breakfast in the beautiful breakfast room, next to the window and the lake! Today we can finally see the mountains clearly.
The young and elder hotel staffs were busy serving around. It was an unusual sight to me. I usually only see skillful business-looking staffs in the common business hotels, yet in the very hotel, the elder staffs look like grandfathers, while the young staffs look like the grandsons, who looked no more than teenagers. On the streets, I also noticed many policemen walking around or posting in front of the hotels or casino were very very young, maybe no more than 20. In the old times, these young men would have gone to war, but nowadays, people at this age are usually still in school, so I was very surprised.
This is our No.1 favorite room in this hotel. I think it served as a gameroom? There was fireplace and chess in there. There were also big comfortable leather sofas and beautiful cushions. All the cushion covers were different! Each has either an animal or bird drawn on it. It was amazing. Also, the wall was decorated with a drawing made by natural wood, it was so unique. We spent a lot of time sitting in this gameroom chatting and taking photos…
Today we had a walk in the town, saw a beautiful church, passed by a school with beautiful wall paintings by kids, and at last, we had afternoon coffee at the balcony of a cafe where we could continued to enjoy the mountain view.
The next day, the biggest accident of this trip happened!
Originally, we had already booked online a long-distance bus to cross the border to Argentina, our next destination. We waited patiently, but the bus never came. We tried to ask the bus drivers around, the service counters at the bus stations, we couldn’t understand why the bus never came. My friend only knew limited Spanish, myself could only wait with the backpacks. The counter of our bus company was totally closed. We felt helpless. After a long time, finally we could somebody who could speak English, somebody who was kind enough to call the bus company for us, and found out that the Once-a-day bus was cancelled because too much snow blocking the roads!!!! We could not be more shocked. Perhaps it was posted on the bus company’s homepage, perhaps it wasn’t. After all, it is Latin America.
Somebody suggested us to take a bus to another town, where the bus company’s counter was open, then we could ask for a replacement seat on the next day’s bus. We had no choice. Not only did we wasted one day, we had already booked the hotel in the next destination, Bariloche, which we were looking forward to… Our hotel was of course already non-refundable at the point.
Thank to my dear friend, she was able to argue with the ticket counter (who only spoke Spanish!!) to replace us to the next day’s bus free-of-charge. Thanks god!!
After that, it was already late afternoon. We wandered around an unknown local town, called “Osorno”. There we needed to look for a place to stay at night, in order to take the next morning’s bus. It was just a resident area. We asked around, if any guesthouse/hostel were open. Finally, we saw a sign, and asked lady inside, she gave us an apartment for USD 20. It was surprisingly cheap, completed with kitchen, bathroom, 2-layer bed, TV and wifi! We couldn’t ask for more!!
We wandered around the local town at evening, passed by a quiet park along the river, found a local bar to takeout our dinner. At this small apartment, we drank local wine, enjoyed tasty large size beef & potato takeout at the bedside, and watched cooking program in Spanish! It was certainly not what we expected, but looking back, I surprisingly enjoyed the night, with my BF!
Tomorrow, we are going to Andes and Bariloche!!