We left Puerto Varas this morning and headed to Huilo Huilo, a 4 hr drive, with a planned stop in Frutillar.
Frutillar was established in the late 1800’s by German immigrants and the town still has a German feel. We wandered around the lake front which contained lots of little shops and a world-renowned theater. The volcano loomed on the other side of the lake. Here are pictures of the volcano.
Many of the shops sold yarn, but I showed great self-restraint and resisted. We bought some handmade wooden birds for the wall in the office. Here are pictures of the town.
Frutillar is famous for its theater beside the water.
Then we headed back to the car and planned to drive to our next destination. However when we got back to the car, we discovered that the battery was dead because we left the lights on (Chile requires drivers to drive with the lights on during the day). We called Hertz and they were supposed to send someone.
Rick waited with a car and I went to the German village museum. It was a recreation of the original German settlers village.
When I got back no one had called or arrived to jump start us. I walked into the town to try to find someone to help but no luck. We tried to call Hertz again and were holding for a representative. Rick hung up before speaking to someone because the phone battery was dying and we did not have a way to recharge it. We both thought we might be stuck in Frutillar for the night. Eventually, I waved down a police van driving by. They didn’t speak English but I had used my translator to figure out how to say “My car battery has died. Can you help us?” They understood. They didn’t have jumper cables so they went off to find some. They came back about 30 minutes later. Unfortunately the battery on their van was on the wrong side so they waved over a truck. Finally the car started! We tried to give the police officers 20,000 pesos, about $20, but they wouldn’t accept it so we ended up giving it to the truck driver.
Back on our way, we drove directly to Huilo Huilo. The drive was very pretty, along huge lakes. Here is a picture from the drive.
Eventually we arrived at our hotel in Huilo Huilo. Huilo Huilo is a conservation project, begun in 2000, which encompasses 1000 sq km of private land that has been developed for low-impact ecotourism and falls within a much larger Unesco biosphere reserve. The hotel was crazy. It was a huge rambling complex. Here’s a picture of the map they gave us.
Here’s a promotional video, many of the places shown were closed, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wPo9DK95Tf8.
Our room was in a building that looked like a mushroom. After getting settled in our room we wandered around, getting lost constantly. It was a weird place because it seemed really empty and a big portion was closed. They had game rooms, playrooms for younger kids, movie rooms, an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a kids pool, etc. We came to conclusion that someone had invested too much money and the resort was in trouble because they could fill it. Once we looked a little closer, our whole place, including our room, looked a little tired.
We had a dinner buffet which was good but expensive and went to bed.