The gateway city to Patagonia and the Chilean fjords — where Puerto Montt sits at the northern end of the Chilean fjords at the head of the Reloncaví Sound, and is the starting point of the Carretera Austral (the 1,240 km gravel road that runs south through the Chilean fjordland to Villa O'Higgins — one of the world's great wilderness drives, passing through terrain with no road connections for the first 80 years of Chile's road network), the Angelmo fish market (the waterfront fishing village 2 km west of the city centre where pelicans and sea lions wait for scraps below the outdoor fish market stalls and smoke rises from the curantos (traditional Chilote potato-and-seafood pits baked under hot stones)) is one of the most atmospheric food markets in South America, Puerto Varas (23 km north — a lakeside German-colonial town on the shore of Lago Llanquihue with the most dramatic active volcano views in Chile) is the most-photographed town in the Lake District, and the NAVIMAG ferry (a 4-day cargo-passenger boat journey from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales through the Chilean fjords — one of the world's great ocean journeys) leaves from Puerto Montt's main port
Puerto Montt (250,000 city; 290,000 metro) is the capital of the Los Lagos Region and the southernmost major city in Chile before the fjordlands begin — a port city at the northern end of the Chilean fjords that serves as the transport and logistics hub for southern Chile, and the departure point for the Carretera Austral, the NAVIMAG fjord ferry to Patagonia, and the Torres del Paine circuit.
Puerto Montt was founded in 1853 by German immigrants — one of the central nodes of the German colonisation of the Chilean Lake District (1850–1875) encouraged by the Chilean government to develop the southern frontier. The city was named for Manuel Montt, the president of Chile who promoted the German immigration scheme. The city's German heritage is still visible in its wooden colonial-era buildings (many using the distinctive shingled Chilote wood construction), its German-origin bakeries and kuchen shops, and family surnames throughout the region. Puerto Montt is the terminus of Route 5 (…