Visiting Santiago and the Lake District of Chile

After a stay in Santiago, visitng the sights, the author headed south to the Lake District and "Puerto Varas, a small town on the country's second-largest lake, Llanquihue. The lake, about 40 kilometres at its widest point, has shores dotted with hamlets named Frutillar, Valdivia and Puerto Octay. But Puerto Varas, with fewer than 20,000 residents, is where to stay. When Chile promotes the Lake District to the world, this is the place -- with its spectacular views of snow-dusted volcanoes --that it shows. Some say it may eventually become Chile's Lucerne. Puerto Varas already has a casino."

View of a Puerto Varas beach on Lake LLanquihue, thanks to ArtToday.com.