It is really the warm wood comfort of a classically restored German Colonial architecture that the Ayacara offers on the inside. There are many hotels, hostels, and pensions along the lake front of  Frutillar, but the Ayacara Hotel has something we did not see in other hotels in Frutillar. Specifically, modern service and amenities tucked in a small eight bedroom exclusive bed & breakfast style setting. There are is no rush to the environment, or feeling that you are somehow just a room number. In fact, there are no room numbers at the Ayacara. They are all named.

Now, I know after talking to the managers at the Ayacara they like to be called a “hotel”, but they really are a Bed and Breakfast in such a classic international sense that the term “hotel” is just too generic. Calling them merely a hotel does not seem to fully capture the experience, especially when you consider that they adhere to the German tradition of presenting their guest with a speculator selection of pastries, fruits, juices, and breads in their breakfast buffet. By the way, they know what real coffee is all about. I can not say the same for many of the big hotels in Chile that like to perpetuate the tradition of instance coffee, in spite of their percolated coffee prices.  Real coffee makes the difference in how you see Southern Chile in the morning.

What is just outside the Hotel Ayacara is as important as what is inside. The Hotal Ayacara is only about a block from the Theater del Lagos. The theater del Lagos is an incredible project to construct a full international concert hall, art museum, and cultural center by private funding. It is already operational, and we had the pleasure of going to a Jazz concert by a mix of American and Chilean musicians. The building stretches out over Lake Llanquihue and points towards the snow capped volcano. There is a small cafe on the lake side of the theater that is the best place in town to enjoy a late afternoon drink as the sun goes down or an early morning coffee as the sun comes up. The best time to visit (please book early) is in February, the town celebrates the "Semanas Musicales" or the Music weeks. Frutillar is a town that take music seriously, and thus why the theater project is so central to the entire community. Music can be found around the town all year, in everything from the musical notes embroidered on tourist trinkets to ten foot sculptures in the city parks.

The theater itself is a strange mix of very modern architecture with just a hint of a traditional Southern Chile German Style Farmers Barn with its covering in copper shingles. I suspect it will age gracefully and become more colorful with time.  Some of the inspirations for this strange edifice can be found at the nearby German colonial Museum, where the University Austral and the local town have partnered to preserve the original buildings of the German founders of Frutillar.  

The town of Frutillar sits in a geographically privileged location. Just across Lake Llanquihue is the Larger city of Puerto Varas. Puerto Varas sports more traditional tourism with new five star hotels and a casino, but has unfortunately in recent years started giving up much of its German heritage to progress. Nevertheless, Puerto Varas has a wide selection of international restaurants for your modern cravings just a short drive away.  Frutillar by contrast still maintains that small town feel, with most of the same amenities of its larger neighbor. It is about 1 hour from the big city of Puerto Montt (45 minuets to the airport), 40 minuets from Osorno, and almost everything in the Lakes District region of Chile and Los Rios Region is within about half a days drive including many of the most famous national parks and the boarder with Argentina.