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. 

Puerto Montt is a big port town (over 150.000) that is honored with the location of Chile's biggest fish market. It appears to be a struggling community mainly because there is not enough housing for the people who work there. We were told the government is trying to help by building more low income housing. The 1960 earthquake destroyed the port, so there is a more modern port now. The weather was fairly drab when we arrived, so that didn't help our impression of this town. 

We arrived in Valdivia without any problems. We were able to book a hostel which was fortunate because it was indeed a holiday weekend. About every place was booked by the time we arrived. Now I'm not sure what holiday was being celebrated, but we were told there are many nontraditional ones throughout the year. Seems like a good excuse for three day weekends.