Our next destination was Petrohue on Lake Todos Los Santos. The whole of the area was colonized by Germans starting in 1845 when the Chilean government gave each male an area of land, a milking cow, 500 planks of wood, nails, a yoke of oxen and a years free medical assistance and if they wanted it Chilean citizenship. I would have needed the added incentive of a Sainsbury or Waitrose.

As we drove towards Petrohue we were amazed at the piles of grey sand like material all over the fields and piled up at the sides of the roads. When we got to Petrohue we drove into the carpark next to the beach to camp for the night. You could not tell the difference between the two as both were covered in the same grey material. We went for a walk and came across a small kiosk at the campsite (closed for the winter) which was buried up to a metre in the grey sand. We later learnt that the nearby volcano Calbuco had erupted in April. It had sent columns of ash (210 million cubic metres of it) 15kms into the sky. Some of the surrounding areas were buried in up to a metre of ash which they are still clearing away.

Petrohue sits in the Vicente Perez Rosales National Park which is Chiles oldest national park, created in 1926. It is a very small village with a few houses, a large posh lodge (which we visited to use their WIFI), a museum, a very small shop, a cafe and lots of boats. The museum gives the history of some of the more notable German settlers. One which caught our eye was that of Carlos Wiederhold, who opened up a trade route across the Andes to Argentina in the mid 1800's. His route is still used today by tourists as it is very scenic. What is interesting is that he transported goods by boat and mules but the mountains were tough going for the mules so he built a 6 mile long goods cable car. It was never used as the opening of the Panama Canal and WW1 bankrupt the company which was bought by the Swiss pioneer Don Ricardo Roth, who transformed the route into a tourist attraction. The cable car disappeared and was thought to have been just a legend but some years ago evidence (the metal parts of the machinery) were found and the cable car has been reconstructed in the museum.

Walking around Petrohue was like walking on a beach. The ash was everywhere including, after a few hours, in Arthur. We decided to move to the side of the carpark for the night as it looked more sheltered from the wind blowing up the beach, but we left it too late and a Dutch campervan appeared and pinched our spot. I should point out they there were only 3 campervans in the carpark which is huge so that was rather bad luck for us. Peter was most put out and decided to park close to them. Unluckily this area had a bit of a thicker layer of ash on it and Arthur got stuck. Peter ended up digging us out and good old Arthur managed to get free in 4 wheel drive and difflock. After this we abandoned this carpark and sneaked into a small coach park near the jetties which had been well compacted by all the vehicles. Arthur also decided to have another slow puncture in the same tyre as before (to be repaired in Puerto Varas a few days later).

Through the National Park, starting at Petrohue, is the only border crossing between Chile and Argentina that is not possible by car. It involves 3 boat trips and 2 coach trips. We went on the first boat trip across LagoTodo Los Santos to the tiny village called Puella from where a coach picks up people heading to Argentina. The boat then waits 4 hours for the people crossing from Argentina before returning to Petrohue. The boat trip was lovely but we were a bit worried about 4 hours in a village of no more than 12 buildings and 120 residents, so we signed up for a trip which was very sweet consisting of a visit to a farm to feed, not very friendly looking, Llamas and Alpacas, followed by a drive through a river in a very strange wooden panelled truck and then a short boat ride.

After 2 nights in the coach park we left Petrohue and drove to Puerto Varas. The town sits on the bank of the rather large Lake Llanquihue, the second largest lake in Chile (60 sq.Kms or 330 sq. miles if you prefer), with spectacular views of Volcano Osorno and Calbuco. The town has been voted the best place to live in Chile. With a recommendation like that I was hopeful of some good supermarkets and restaurants. I was not disappointed. It has 3 good supermarkets and many restaurants. The first night we went for a Sushi buffet (I’ve never had a Sushi buffet so was very excited) in the rather posh Radisson hotel. I was in heaven when I saw it all laid out but got a bit confused when the waiter came with a plate full of different bits. He didn’t speak English so it was some time before, watching other diners, I realised that you could go and help yourself and/or eat what they bring. Odd buffet! We decided to spend a few days here to get Arthurs tyre fixed, Peter a haircut, our rather large pile of laundry done and some nice food, so booked into a hostal recommended by an American family we had bumped into a couple of times. It was a nice place but did make us feel old with all these youngsters staying there.

The first day we chilled out, investigated the supermarkets(simple pleasures are the best) and visited a rather weird museum owned by an artist called Pablo Fierro. He started the museum in 2001 in a nearby town. It basically contains a lot of old household artefacts and bits of buildings. You can pick up and examine anything in his collection. I gave that a miss as it all looked rather dusty and a bit dirty. In amongst all this tat (as Peter not to politely called it) are his paintings of settler houses. He moved his collection to this building which is the original pump house (built in 1946) for the town’s water supply. You can still see the concrete supports for the water intake pipe from the lake.

The second day Peter carried out a bit of maintenance on Arthur including further repairs to the crack in the roof using some epoxy resin. In the afternoon we went on a trip to Volcano Osorno which you can climb or if you are feeling lazy you can get 2 ski lifts which take you up to the summer snow line. It was surprisingly warm. The sun is very strong and there was not a breath of wind. I did attempt to climb up a small snow bank but ended up sliding, not to elegantly, down on my bottom. The views of the nearby Volcano Calbuco and Tronador Mountain in the distant Andes were stunning as there was not a cloud in the sky.

We had been promised a tour of a small local brewery called Chesters, by Russ the owner, so Peter decided to try one of their beers. The promised tour was cancelled and Russ failed to call as promised to rearrange so Peter had an Austral beer the next evening in protest.

The third day we walked around the town to see some of the rather distinct architecture. Puerto Varas is characterized by traditional German architecture, with houses built from alerce wood using tools brought over from Europe by the 19th century colonists. There are still some good examples. On our walk we also found the recommended barbers called Elvis( He seems to have cornered the market as it was the only barbers we could find). Peter popped in and had a normal looking haircut by Elvis’s assistant. Elvis himself had a quiff of reddish hair so I think it was a wise decision to go with the assistant.

Peter opted to do a trek up volcano Calbuco the last day. This was the volcano that spewed ash everywhere in April this year. I gave it a miss.One Volcano is enough for me. Half the volcano is owned by a farmer called Sergio. He suffered quite badly from the ash fall and Peter saw the remains of his farm buildings and his fields now covered in ash. He lost all his livestock. Peter said the path had dissappeared and so they had to forge a new path through burnt forests like pioneers. The volcano is still smoking so they couldn't get any closer than 600 metres from the top.