El Pangue Lodge

Heidi and Ramiro (founders of El Pangue Lodge):

In February 1985 we came with three of our children (Andrés, 6 years old, Cristián, 3 years old, and Javiera, 8 months old, Sebastián the youngest, not yet born) to visit the Carretera Austral. The road was very precarious (very narrow and rough) and we broke all our tires, but we still loved it and saw a place full of opportunities for enterprising people, like us. Our families tenaciously opposed the idea that was born to us, because they found it crazy and we would also lose our good jobs in Santiago because of this adventure. We decided to return in winter 1985 and stay a week in Puyuhuapi to see what we found and how terrible that winter was with which our families threatened us to give up. The idea was to find a place to start our dream together. We had a fantastic time ... a week of sun, but quite cold. We felt that the area was calling us, no rain and stormy winds and we had even found a few hectares with a beach in the Puyuhuapi fjord. We made a purchase agreement between the civilian of Puyuhuapi and we paid a part. On October 23, 1985, only Ramiro left with our things to settle in our new home, after driving from Santiago along the precarious routes of the Carretera Austral, we were surprised that they could no longer sell us the plot, because his relatives were They had opposed, so they returned the money and gave us a couple of heifers to compensate us for the loss. It was like a bucket of cold water ... We continued with the search for the rest of the summer, when in February 1986 we were able to sign the deed for the purchase of a farm on the north shore of Lake Risopatrón, owned by Ernesto Ludwig's succession of the first settlers from Puyuhuapi.