After a quick breakfast we headed out across town to the bus stop for the 8:30am service to Petrohué and Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales. The park protects 251,000 hectares including numerous celestial lakes and snow-capped volcanoes dominating the skyline.

The weather was beginning to clear as we drove around Lago Llanquehue before heading inland towards Petrohué giving great views of lake and mountains. We hopped off the bus 6km before the village at Saltos del Río Petrohué. There was an entry fee of 1,500 pesos to get access to a section of the Río Petrohué, where the water falls and crashes spectacularly through a wide section of basalt rock. The volume of water was incredible, as was the speed, and downriver of the falls, the current was very strong. If you fell in, you would be swept down the river and dumped in the lake in next to no time (if you didn't get broken and trapped on the rocks, of course). We walked the Sendero de Enamorados, a nice path through forest with river views to a little pool with a smaller waterfall. The return path led us up by a stream in 'fairy tale' forest, very picturesque. By the time we arrived back at the start of the path, the sun had came out and the clouds had cleared over Volcán Osorno for perfect views.

We were thinking about walking at least part of the 6km to Petrohué, but a bus showed up right on time so we jumped on. In a way it was quite lucky because there wasn't a path as such for walkers, we would have been sharing the gravel road with the cars and buses and the view of the river was mostly blocked by trees.

Petrohué wasn't quite the village we expected, it was more a turning circle for vehicles, a cafe that looked shut and a hotel partially hidden in the trees. There was a jetty with a lot of boats and captains offering trips out on the lake.

We walked up a path to the CONAF office to enquire about the walks in the area, and had to fill out an intentions form making us wonder how many people got lost. Before setting out we had some lunch at the picnic tables by the camping site on the shore of Lago Todos los Santos. It was very pleasant sitting in the sunshine with beautiful views, we could quite easily have sat there all afternoon.

Our planned route was to walk part of the Sendero Paso Desolación but instead of continuing up and round the volcano, we would cut back down to the lake and return around the shore. Once we cleared the forest at the lakeside, the views of Volcán Osorno and the other mountains surrounding Lago Todos los Santos were amazing.

After an hour or so walking along the path, we came to a dry river bed that would take us back down to the lake. The steep sided river bed was enormous, about 70m across and 10m deep, and it did make us wonder how much melted snow comes rushing down off the volcano. The walk down to the black sand at the lake was easy enough, as was the first section on the beach, but then the beach ended and the rocky bush began.

We climbed over few rocks as we made our way round the coast, but then it became a bit more extreme. The shore side was becoming more of a cliff and the bush was becoming increasingly thick. This clearly wasn't the way most people walked on the 'lake side track'. The walk turned into more of a 'bush bashing' exercise and we stumbled our way across the 100m section of lakeside. With only a few scratches, jumps across rocks in the water and crawling between entangled tree branches, we made it to another small beach. Sensibly, we decided to take the path up into the forest and found the correct path back to the start of the walk.

We returned the intention forms and then grabbed a coke from a small shop while waiting for a bus to take us back to Puerto Varas. It arrived almost straight away so we jumped on and dozed for a lot of the 90 minute journey.

All day we had been talking about going to La Marca for a steak dinner, but it was closed for private event. We decided to go back to the hostel to shower and then go to find somewhere to eat. Another recommended restaurant, from Tourist Information, was Chamaca Inn, a fish and seafood restaurant directly above the fish market. The waitress was a really funny lady, turning 60 years old tomorrow. The food and wine was great too and we were really glad the way it worked out - we have a reservation for the steak restaurant tomorrow.

Back at hostel, we had a drink and chat with other people staying there and managed to give a lot of tips to the guys who were heading for Pucón and Argentina.