We left Puerto Varas in the morning. We took a scenic route around Lake Llanquihue to a town called Frutillar named after the strawberries grown locally. Frutillar is a quaint town with less than 10,000 residents. It does attract tourists in the summer. We parked the van and walked a bit on the coastline to the main part of town. The Volcano Osorno was still covered by clouds, so we never got that view. These are the parts of Chile we would miss if we only traveled through major towns.

Frutillar has a lovely new theater in town. There are live performances as well as educational classes and activities for children. We walked on and watched two thug stray dogs attempt to control the town. Maeve and Liam roared laughing as the dogs barked and chased each car that passed through. The dogs seemed to be saying, "Yeah, that's right, keep going-this is our town." Fortunately, they left us alone.

As much of the Osorno Volcano as we will get to see

We had a longer drive to our final destination for the night. We had one more stop across the street from where we were staying. Saltos del Laja is where the Laja River falls into a deep rocky canyon that was formed by water erosion. We could see the waterfalls from the bridge on the road. It was simply gorgeous; a definite source of pride for the Chileans.

I posted some of these pics on my Facebook page soon after we were here. I couldn't wait to show these off. We could just walk up to the water. People do swim here in the summer and there are long lines just for pictures. Not difficult to see why.

From a higher point, you can walk up for more views

After everyone had their fill of the view and pictures, we headed across the street to our accommodations for the night. This was like a campground with cabins. Apparently they got our reservation messeed up, so we all had to share one cabin. Two of our travel companions hopped off the tour in Puerto Montt to explore more of Southern Chile. We then added one French woman who joined us there. She was on our original bus tour when we left Santiago. So it was the four of us, the French woman, the college student, our driver and our guide. We didn't have enough beds, so the driver and our guide had a coin toss and the guide lost. He had to spend the night on the bus. Michael and I lucked out and got the bedroom since we were a couple. Whew. Everyone else had beds lined up in the main room and Liam and Maeve shared a bed. Not the best situation, but it was far better than the night before.

Before we got settled, we noticed some unusual creatures walking around. Several peacocks call this place home. There were rabbits and roosters too, although the roosters were quite loud. I believe the owner added these animals, but I"m not sure why they would have them here since people here are looking to rest, not listen to roosters and peacocks all night and morning long.