We braved the roads, that is to say we hired a car!! We arrived to collect the car at 9.00am but immediately after the office opened it closed whilst the hire guy went home after showing us a large hole in the backside of his trousers (which presumably had just happened). We were evicted from the office and left at the roadside until his son arrived to sort out our reasonably priced car for the day. The plan was to drive to Frutillar, then back to Puerto Varas and then to the ski station on Osorno volcano. The quilt lady advised us to drive all the way round lake Llanquihue and that would take us through Frutillar and to Osorno (the long way). We took her advice and regretted it. The road soon deteriorated to a gravel track and our little Suzuki hire car rattled so much we that earplugs would have been a good idea. Frutillar is another place established by the Germans but hasn't been built up like Puerto Varas. There are Kuchen (cake) shops everywhere. The dogs here seem to sit in the middle of the road and chase cars as they pass by, getting uncomfortably close. We saw a group of people by the side of the road hugging and crying incessantly. Next to them was a dead dog, on his back with all 4 legs in the air (rigor mortis?). Then suddenly he rolled over and walked around. A moment later he was playing dead again, all 4 legs skyward and perfectly still, then he got up again. Our conclusion of all the tears over a dead dog were obviously incorrect. Soon after Frutillar the tarmac ended again, we found ourselves confined to the wrong side of the road (no choice as our side was cordoned off). There was no traffic control and to our dismay a lorry appeared coming from the other direction straight towards us. We squeezed past each other in the slimmest of unofficial passing places. We eventually returned to the correct side of the road but still no sign of tarmac. The drive round the lake (100 miles) was really a waste of time, it was a dreary cloudy day so you couldn't see much at all and a lot of the time there was that many trees along the road you couldn't even see the lake. We stopped for lunch at Puerto Octay (another recommendation) but we weren't impressed. After circumnavigating most of the lake we turned off and headed up and up to the ski station. Then suddenly things improved drastically we (Donna) drove out above the clouds into glorious sunshine and there was snow-capped Osorno in front of us. We parked up and took two chairlifts up as it was too late to walk from the carpark. From the top station Donna took a short walk to a mirador overlooking the volcanoes glacier. I took as trail uphill to reach the snowline. Both paths were hard going as with every footstep you were sinking into a deep layer of volcanic grit, but both were worth the effort. Great views overlooking a blanket of cloud that was the cause of the grey day down below. We had to fill up before returning the car - the petrol stations here have attendants who fill up your tank and wash your windows (like going back in time). Left here on a wet day headed for Pucon.