petrohue.com

Petrohué Lodge are located within Vicente Pérez Rosales Nacional Park, overlooking the deep emerald waters of Lake Todos los Santos with the majestic backdrop of the snowcapped Osorno Volcano behind.

Our complete services and accomodations offer warm hospitality at your disposal. We invite you to enjoy the native flora and fauna and explore our little-known paths and beaches in the majestic landscape of lakes and volcanoes. At the end of your day you can relax in front of our magnificent fireplace in an environment of  warmth and fine attention.

We are the best place to meet and explore Chilean Patagonia.

History

Petrohué means “Misty Place,” a name derived from long ago when Osorno Volcano’s eruptions of hot lava flowed into Todos los Santos, producing clouds of steam.

The site of Petrohué was never inhabited by native populations who feared the great Volcano Osorno. For thousands of years the whole valley remained an untouched virgin wilderness.

After the local German colonization in the mid-1800’s, people began to venture to the volcano’s hidden side, arriving to Petrohué and discovering the marvel of Lake Todos los Santos.

At the end of the 1800’s, the Chile-Argentina Company opened the Andean lakes route to bring Patagonian sheep wool to Puerto Montt for shipment to Europe via the Magellan Strait. The route traversed the Andes from Puerto Varas to the newly-founded city of San Carlos de Bariloche, crossing lakes Llanquihue, Todos los Santos, Frías and Nahuel Huapi.

In 1913, the Chile-Argentina Company went bankrupt in the onset of World War I. It was bought by Ricardo Roth, a visionary Swiss explorer, and transformed from a shipping route into a tourism business. The headquarters in Petrohué became a guesthouse where tourists could rest from their long journey on the steamboat “Tronador” or on their horseback ride from Ensenada.

Petrohué was always a strategic point during this journey and preferred by visitors as a place to rest and enjoy a beautiful, untouched wilderness. These days Petrohué proudly preserves its original enchantment and the living history of its first explorers.

Petrohué Lodge still belongs to the family of that first man, a pioneer in the region’s tourism, whose vision created Chile’s first national park in the valley surrounding Todos los Santos, known to him as Emerald Lake.

Thank you Ricardo Roth.