Saltos del Petrohue, wonderful South of Chile

Vicente Perez Rosales National Park is located in the Tenth Region, covering Todos Los Santos lake zone; in one of the most beautiful places of chilean south. This park was the first natural reserve created in Chile and is a perfect picture of the zone of forest and volcanoes.

To reach to Vicente Perez Rosales National Park you can take the way from Puerto Varas, a town located at 64 kilometers away from Petrohue, where the park is located. The distance of the road is almost imperceptible because of the amazing beauty of the valdivian forest, which offers greens of every tone, the Llanquihue lake which looks like an ocean and the impressive Osorno volcano.

When we are ascending through this winding road, we can watch Calbuco volcano, which has intermittent activity and a double fumarole. In its crater are red rocks, corresponding to the remains of the old eruptions, the last of them in 1996.

The road ends in the beach of Todos Los Santos Lake, located at 76 kilometers from Puerto Varas. This is other of the wonders in the zone, with its turquoise waters reflecting Osorno and Puntiagudo volcanoes. The waters of this lake aren’t cold in spite of its location in the mountain, because of the volcanic presence, which also give to the waters a pristine aspect and some minerals such as copper and sulfur

If the navigation continues for 20 nautical miles to the east, you will get to Peulla, a little town which is part of the Cruce Andino circuit, just as Petrohue. This circuit links Puerto Montt with San Carlos de Bariloche and Nahuel Huapi lake in Argentina and there is no terrestrial route between these two points, so the boat is the only way to get there. The navigation through Todos Los Santos lake is also an ecological adventure, where the visitors can observe the incredible nature of the zone, as beautiful as unforgettable.

This lake has two rivers, Peulla river and Blanco river, which drain in the Tronador hill. The Todos Los Santos Lake has its drain in the Petrohue river, which creates the famous Saltos del Petrohue, a capricious waterfalls which falls from three meters of altitude into the geographic accidents of volcanic rocks. This is a place for adventurous tourism and you can practice rafting and jet boat.

Vicente Perez Rosales National Park is surrounded by three impressive volcanoes: Tronador volcano, located right in the frontier with Argentina, which is covered by seven glaciers; Osorno Volcano, with more than 2000 meters and an almost symmetric cone but a treacherous climate which makes dangerous the descending of the mountain, and the Puntiagudo volcano, with 2400 meters of altitude and a summit that cannot be reached yet, because of its sharp slope and the unstable ground.

Because of the volcanic activity, next to the national park there are hot springs zones, like Vuriloche and Ranco. The park also has different climate conditions inside of its 220 thousand hectares, produced by difference in geography. Some zones has more rains than others, allowing the growing of different kinds of flora like ulmo, radal and coihue, trees covered by lichens and a deep forests with murta bush.

In the park there are also different species of fauna such as lizards, rodents, puma, pudues, culpeo foxes and others, besides of insects and frogs. In Todos Los Santos lake and Petrohue river the visitors can find rainbow trouts, chilean pejerrey and carps, and fly fishing is allowed.

Vicente Perez Rosales National Park is also surrounded by amazing places such as Ensenada and Petrohue, the magical shores of Llanquihue Lake and the wonderful towns of Puerto Varas and Frutillar, where you can watch Osorno and Puntiagudo volcanoes in all their splendor. You can take a tour to Llanquihue and Todos Los Santos Lakes to discover every corner of one of the most beautiful places in Chile, where every zone is an adventure.

Find excellent lodgings in puerto varas hotels, to enjoy even more your stay in this wonderful natural paradise.