A fun getaway from Puerto Varas is to go 45 km east along a picturesque road along Llanquihue Lake to Ensenada. Ensenada is a connection point to the wide variety of tourist attractions that the area has to offer. This small town, which suffered from the anger of nature with the recent eruption of the Calbuco volcano, has hostels, cabins, travel agencies, camping areas, restaurants, and coffee shops, all in the classic German style of the area. On the outskirts of the town is the entrance to Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park, framed by a spectacular landscape of native forests, mountains, volcanoes, and the Todos Los Santos Lake. The park offers a wide range of trails with low, medium, and high difficulty. The most famous and visited is the one located in the Saltos del Petrohué. More than 300,000 people annually contemplate its torrential waters that flow between large masses of petrified lava, formed 600 years ago with the eruption of the Osorno volcano.
The waters of the Petrohué arise from the Todos los Santos Lake, also known as Esmeralda (Emerald), due to the color of its waters. This small mountain lake is surrounded by forests of coigües, ulmos, and olivillos. A regular lake navigation service in this place represents a link in the crossing of Andean lakes between Puerto Varas and Bariloche in Argentina. From Petrohué, it crosses to the village of Peulla at its eastern end. In Petrohué there is a camping area, cabins, and hotels, such as the Natura and Petrohué hotels (www.petrohue.com). From this place, you can do sport fishing, trekking, canyoning, rafting, and expeditions to Tronador mountain and the Osorno volcano, which can also be accessed all year round by car, since the ascent route is completely paved. Many tourists visit the Osorno volcano because its ski season is the longest in South America. If you want to get to the top and contemplate Llanquihue Lake, we recommend you take a chairlift. There is a ski center on its mountainsides.
