a statue symbolizing Frutillar (treble clef because Frutillar has the music festivals in the summer)
On the way back from Petrohue yesterday I purchased an excursion to Frutillar with the same tour company. I am very happy that I did because I ended up being the only person, so I got my own personal guide! It took about an hour and a half to get to Frutillar from Puerto Varas during which time I learned a lot about the region (for example salmon farming is currently the biggest economy here). My guide was a local of Frutillar, so when we got there he showed me all the cool places and told me a lot about the history of the city and current politics. The main draw to Frutillar is the Museo Colonial Aleman, which I spent about 45 minutes admiring. There are 4 buildings, which are all faithful reproductions of how an old farming property would have looked like. Inside each building are many artifacts from the 1850's. They also had descriptions in Spanish, German, and English (with good grammar too!). My favorite part of the museum was a hidden upstairs room that had a lot of information about the glaciers in the area. I'm not sure what that room had in common with the rest of the museum, but I learned a lot. If you have time, definitely take the road from Puerto Varas to Frutillar. It would be a great bike ride in good weather because the countryside is beautiful and full of old houses and lots of cows.
It costs 1.800 pesos to get into the museum, and there's a lot to see. If I had read everything I would probably have spent a good two hours there. The information was very interesting and there were some unique tidbits about what life was like for the first German colonists. This museum is definitely worth a trip to learn about special culture of this area of Chile.
