Lake Llanquihue and German Settlers

We drove yesterday down from Valdivia about 3 hours to Lake Llanquihue. Lake Llanquihue is Chile's largest lake and has spectacular views of Volcanoes Osorno and Calbuco. It is a resort town with access to some of Chile's National parks. The area is also known for being settled by German settlers in the late 19th century starting in 1852. Approaching the lake, the countryside had somewhat of the feel of Southwestern Ontario if one could ignore the volcanoes in the distance. Lots of dairy farms and cattle farms and lots of hay fields. No corn and not as flat. I checked the latitude and it was very close to London Ontario's latitude but 41 degrees south which is opposite to London's 42 north. We stopped at some of the German settled towns along the way. One could still make out vestiges of the German architecture. My favorite town was Puerto Octay as it was the least touristy. It had a nice collection of cats, dogs and roses. They had a Christmas market on the main square with products mainly from China for sale. We bought some baking and wandered around the town noting some of the nice old German built buildings. We found a plaque commemorating 13 band members of a regimental band. My Google translate said they had died when drinking with the Prince of Wales but that didn't seem to make sense. When I googled the event later it came out that the boat bringing them to play for the Prince of Wales had sunk and they had drowned. Something had been lost in translation. The inhabitants of Puerto Octay didn't look terribly German but after 175 years the German blood must be pretty diluted out. We stopped in Frutillar which was more touristy. They had an open air museum of typical German buildings such as a country house, a mill, a blacksmith shop and house which had been more recently built. There were lots of pictures of the German settlers. They seemed happy and prosperous in the photos. From what I have read about North America, German settlers were typically pull immigrants. They were immigrants with skills who were attracted to the New World unlike immigrants who had to flee their countries from famine or persecution who were called push immigrants. The pull immigrants did much better over the short haul. We continued on to Puerto Varas which is a full on resort town and from I can see there are few remaining vestiges of the Germans here. Cheryl has been quite intrigued by a very common bird here in southern Chile known as the Buff necked Ibis. They are about 2 feet tall and look like a cross between a heron and a sandpiper. They are everywhere. Sitting on buildings and in trees often in pairs and they make these unusual vocalizations which are a cross between clucking and sounds a monkey would make. It can be extremely loud. I think the locals don't give them much notice but Cheryl finds them quite comical.Read more