We asked Pierre, the hostel owner, what he suggested we do in the Puerto Varas area for one day. We had hoped to go canyoning, which is basically white water rafting without the raft. However a tourist had met with a serious accident a couple of weeks earlier and so the tour company was under investigation. Not a good plan. His top tip was to rent a couple of bikes (from him of course) and cycle along the lake to the nearby town of Frutillar. Frutillar is a picturesque town founded by German immigrants way back when. Sounded like a good plan.

Turns out it is 32km each way. Pierre admitted is wasn't flat, but it was fine. His Chilean partner said there was one hill that was a killer. If she could do it, we could do it. So off we set, at 1pm having spent the morning doing lord knows what.

The first section was through the town, all very straightforward. The directions for the next bit said "follow the railway". I'd assumed this meant a road or path by the railway, but it turned out to mean actually follow the railway. Luckily trains are a rare sight!

Beyond the next town we hit the rolling hills of the open countryside. And soon after we were walking up our first hill. About five more walking sections followed. It was pretty hard going. However the countryside to the left was lush and green (actually it could have passed for the UK), and the lake/volcanos impressed to the right (these could not have passed for the UK). The views counterbalanced the effort well.

We reached Frutillar at around 3:30. It is indeed a picturesque village by the sea, although the German influence is a lot less pronounced than we had been led to believe. It is generically alpine in character to be fair. After a late picnic lunch, a wander around and an ice cream on the sea front we faced up to the necessary journey back. Mostly because by then school was out and the place was overrun with youths :).

It was then that we realised that the wind had been behind us on the way there. Not an insignificant wind by anyone's reckoning. Even the flat bits were agony on the return leg. While we initially saw the funny side and battled on, by the time we approached the outskirts of Puerto Varas we were more than ready to quit. Still, all good exercise!!

I later mentioned the walking sections to Pierre, he nonchalantly replied that everyone has to do that. Actually probably best we weren't forewarned as we may not have gone.

The vegetarian risotto we made in the hostel that evening seemed scant reward for the physical exertion, although the bottle of wine was gratefully enjoyed!