El Meandro

Volcanoes & Lakes - Chile's Lake District

After a few days of rain, something we are not accustomed to, we hit Chile's Lake District. This region was of more interest to us again thanks to its picturesque volcanoes set along lakes and rivers. Hiking also became rewarding as soon as we were able to leave the dense forests of the lower regions behind.

The lakes are located at altitudes between 50 and 250 meters and the volcano tops barely reach 3000 meters. Thus, by now we are pretty much done with the famous Andean high altitudes.

Parque Nacional Huerquehue

Camping Olga is located at the end of the tiny Lago Tinquilco. The hike up to Lago Chico and Lago Verde was rather steep and went through a dense forest, whose highlight were vistas of the lake below and Volcán Villarrica in the background.

Parque Nacional Villarrica

A very nice hike leads up to Glaciar Pichillancahue at the foot of Volcán Villarrica. Some beautiful Araucaria trees line the path, very typical for this region of Chile.

Lago Llanquihue

Volcán Osorno towers above Chile's second-largest lake, Lago Llanquihue, on its eastern shore.

We spent a couple of nights in the tranquil village of Llanquihue in the west before heading to Ensenada at the foot of the volcano.

A road leads up to about 1200m altitude offering great views of the lake, the volcano and the mountains.

Cochamó

The final stretch led us to Cochamó and along the Estero Reloncavi, which is actually an arm of the sea.

Crossing Borders - Central Chile & Argentina

Relative to the distance traveled (3600km in about 3 weeks), this has been the least interesting part of our trip so far, which prompted us to cross the border between Argentina and Chile a few times to at least get some mountain driving and views every now and then.

The Roads

First we quickly drove southwards a few hundred kilometers on rather boring roads. Further south the roads should become even less interesting, not even worth a picture.

Paso del Agua Negra

A large portion of this road is already paved and really wide. Only some 70 km across the top of this 4780 m high pass are still gravel.

We maybe crossed some 20 vehicles while driving across the mountains. They are effectively counting and monitoring number plates with hand-written papers and they go searching if a vehicle does not make it to the other side for some reason. We were number 3. This is going to change when the tunnel that is planned since 2009 is going to be built. This inter-oceanic project is supposed to connect the ports of Coquimbo in Chile with Porto Alegre in Brazil.

Valle de Elqui

This is the Pisco producing center of Chile. Some wineries can also be visited.

Valparaíso

The only bigger city we visited in Chile. It is pretty dirty in parts but some alleys are very beautiful with welcoming cafés and restaurants.

Paso de Uspallata - Paso Los Libertatores

This is one of the main connections between Chile and Argentina. Besides the usual annoying and often thorough check for prohibited items between those two countries, we here also had the pleasure to queue for the border crossing, something we are not accustomed to as we usually cross borders in remoter parts.

Of course we opted to drive across the higher Paso de Uspallata rather than taking the tunnel Paso Los Libertatores. As a consequence we were then lacking another hand-written paper at the border control. Luckily they could just "create" another scrap of paper for that purpose at the policia.

Mendoza

Not much to say. We did not visit the city, had a quick lunch at Bodega Ojo de Agua and off we went.

La Payunia

This is a region with one of the highest densities of volcanoes.

Paso Pichachén

This will be the last border pass we crossed in a while. The scenic road follows the Río Neuquén and as we came closer to the border the green came back to the landscapes.

Laguna de La Laja

Laguna de La Laja is the first lake after the border crossing, surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. A great overnight spot by the water.

Valles Pemehue & Cautín

In many cases when hopping from one valley to the next in Chile, one has to go all the way down to the main highway 5 first. For Valles Pemehue and Cautín there is a back-road connection. Still, we did not see much more than roads winding through the forests. To be fair, we also did not take the time or did not encounter the right weather to hike further up the mountains.

Parque Nacional Conguillío

A nice little national park dominated by volcano Llaima (hidden behind the clouds), lagunas and rivers.