From prosaic 19th-century beginnings as a port at Lago Llanquihue’s north end, idyllic Puerto Octay has become one of the region’s most picturesque locales, enjoying magnificent views across the lake to Volcán Osorno. Local pleasure boats, though, have supplanted the steaming freighters that once connected Octay with Puerto Varas, and it’s become a low-key destination for summer holidaymakers who arrive by paved road from Osorno, 50 kilometers northwest.

The German immigrant presence is palpable in its architecture, food, the checkerboard landscape of dairy farms and woodlands, and in its apparent middle-class contentment.

Puerto Octay (population 3,403) also includes Península Centinela, a wooded spit protruding into the lake that’s home to several hotels and campgrounds. From town, it’s possible to travel Llanquihue’s western shore to the resort village of Frutillar, or its eastern shore to Ensenada and Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales, via a road whose northern half is now paved.

Getting There

Buses and minibuses now leave from the new Terminal de Buses (La Esperanza and Balmaceda), half a block south of the Plaza de Armas. Via Octay (tel. 064/230118) and Vergara go to Osorno’s main bus terminal several times daily, while Thaebus goes half a dozen times daily to Puerto Montt via Frutillar and Puerto Varas. Four times daily, Arriagada goes south to Las Cascadas, roughly halfway to Ensenada.