Teahouses offering kuchen, shops selling dirndles and leiderhosen, enough elves to fill Santa's workshop--had I been transported to Germany? No, there was a huge lake backed by five snow-capped volcanoes--no volcanoes in Germany. Ah, yes, after a wild ride through the trackless fiords of Chilean Patagonia, I'd been deposited in the land of lakes. The Chilean Lake District has picturesque lakes often overlooked by snowy volcanoes, rolling hills of green pastures dotted with cows, and 19c, German, wooden buildings constructed by the immigrants who settled the land. Two uber-charming towns, Puerto Varas and little Fruttiar, sit on the shores of the largest lake, LLanquihue. Nearby, sits the bustling city of Puerto Montt, destroyed in the 1960 earthquake that leveled many coastal Chilean towns, and now rebuilt in a modern style.
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