Images of Osorno
On the stony shores of Lago Llanquihue, stands Puerto Varas. Populated by German immigrants in the 1850's, the town has retained a strong German influence, especially in its architecture. But the town is a mere tenth of the story. The area’s deserved fame lies in scenes not built by human hands.
Here is but an image.
Much activity today. Children in beige shorts skipping stones at Llanquihue’s edge, their feet muddy and content, a couple paddling over the sawing waves, the blades cutting through the blue, twinkling water, that soothing sound smothering all other noise, behold, beyond the red canoes, flat-headed Calbuco Volcano eyes a conspicuous cloud prodding away from its top, as if shot like ash, trembling and crumbling –silence is heard – and Calbuco sloping seamlessly into rolling mounds before rising again as Osorno Volcano, a conical masterpiece, perfect, with a snowy head, smiling triumphantly in the sun before feathering off into infinity, the children hoping to skip their flat stones to the northern shores.