Y
ou have a gorgeous Lake District at home. Why travel halfway around the world to see lakes?” a helpful American friend asks. “I’d spend more time in Patagonia.”
Chile’s Lake District, two-thirds of the way down this long and skinny country, separating the otherworldly Atacama in the north and the south’s dramatic Torres del Paine, often gets the middle-child treatment. But after all that ruggedness at the extremes, this verdant region’s postcard-pretty landscape is easy on the eyes. Think snow-topped volcanoes, startling blue lakes and oddly enough, even a German town or two.
