Chile: Santa Cruz to Pucon
Following the previous night’s New Year’s ‘festivities’, we got up fairly early, had breakfast, checked out and hit the road around 9:30 a.m. for our 750 km drive south. Unsurprisingly, the roads at this time on New Year’s morning were pretty much deserted.
Santa Cruz is about 40 km west of Chile’s main north-south road 5 which is part of the Pan American highway. Rather than taking the shortest route back to this road, we allowed our GPS to direct us along some country lanes to join the main motorway further to the south. We drove past many more fields of grape vines, but also corn and other crops. I imagine that these crops were Chile’s main produce before Chile’s wine industry really started growing 20-30 years ago.
About an hour later, and only one small error in our GPS’s directions, we were on the main highway heading south at 120 km/h but still with a good 7 hours drive in front of us and no hotel reservation at our intended destination. We had read that this road was good, but I was sceptical, to say the least having got used to Brazilian roads. However, the descriptions were right, the road was excellent and easily up to european standards. From Santiago to Puerto Varas/Puerto Montt it is at least 2 lanes in each direction. The only ‘problem’ were the tolls. There is a toll booth about every 80-100 km and the cost for the whole one-way trip (Santiago to Puerto Varas) was something in excess of 20,000 Chilean Pesos (£25/US$40). Apart from comfort/petrol/gas/food stops, we only stopped once to see an attraction described as a ’small Niagra Falls’ in our guide book.
Salta del Laja
Salta del Laja is a waterfall about half way between Santiago and our southernmost destination of Puerto Varas. We had read about it a little before travelling and had been considering it as a possible overnight stop on the way back. However, we decided to stop on our way south. It was a good decision as the town is very small and extremely touristy. Despite this, the falls were quite impressive but nowhere near on the scale of Foz de Iguacu or even Niagra. For anyone taking a similar journey as us, I would suggest stopping, but only for a short break to stretch the legs etc. It is only a very short diversion from the main road and even used to be visible from the old road before construction of the motorway.
A view of Villarrica volcano from Pucon towncentre
After our stop, we drove straight to Pucon eager to find accommodation. We arrived at Pucon early evening and set about finding a hotel. The first place we enquired was fully booked so we started to get concerned. However, we walked around the main square and found the Hotel Huincahue which had a room. It was quite a nice place with the exception of breakfast which was put out (covered) the night before!
Pucon is a town on the edge of a mountain lake and in the shadow of Villarrica volcano. It is in a really beautiful location with some stunning scenery around. It is reportedly one of Chile’s main holiday destinations. Perhaps consequently, Pucon has a good range of restaurants. We chose an Italian, but found it disappointing. This was not unusual in Chile.
An early evening on Pucon's beach
Apart from the beautiful scenery, Pucon also offers a beach. However, as you’ll note from the picture above the sand isn’t golden, instead it is black from the volcanic rock. We didn’t feel tempted to go for a swim, but there were many who do. The other principal attraction in Pucon is an arts market where locals sell all types of things. It is found on the main square and was open the evening we arrived, but closed the next morning as we left too ‘early’ (about 11 a.m.). In fact, we discovered (different to Brazil) that the Chilean day starts late and ends late perhaps as a result of the daylight hours and being on the western side of South America.
Villarrica volcano at the end of the dirt road near Panguipulli
After a quick walk around the town to take some pictures (the ones with sun!), we drove the remaining 250 km or so to our ultimate destination: Puerto Varas. However, once again we decided to start the journey with a scenic detour via Conaripe and Panguipulli. About 40 km of the road was on a dirt road around a lake which we didn’t realise when embarking on it. I don’t like dirt roads much, but this one was suffering just for the views and in truth the road was in very good condition. However, once we were back on the main highway, the stunning scenery was nowhere to be seen. We got to Puerto Varas mid to late afternoon.
As before you can see more photos here and you can read Eneida’s account in Portuguese.
17 January, 2010 | Written by Steve | Comments: Add comment