The Short Run North
A departure after lunch from Puerto Montt still puts the arrival in Valdivia well before evening. The route runs north on Ruta 5 — the Panamericana — through the flat dairy country of the Los Lagos region, four lanes of well-paved highway that make the two and a half hours pass quickly after the gravel and ferry landings of the day before, with a fuel stop at the Aramco station along the way. The highway peels off into city streets on the approach to Valdivia, crossing into a town defined less by its roads than by the three rivers that meet here — the Calle Calle, the Cau Cau, and the Valdivia.