The Chilean Lake District

Bus from Santiago to Pucon, 11 November 2007
Pucon, Chile, 12 - 15 November 2007

We were pretty tired by the time we got on our bus to Pucon. Arriving at our destination 10 hours later we both agreed that we had managed to have our best nights sleep ever in transit...most unusual for us. Hats off to Tur Bus and their cama seats. In Pucon we had a little difficulty finding our accommodation, Donde German, as they appear to have moved address without telling anyone. Pucon has a real Swiss ski resort feel to it. Wooden buildings everywhere. No actually, not Swiss but German. Back in the 1850's large numbers of Germans came over to colonise this and many other parts of mid/southern Chile. Consequently there are plenty of German coffee and chocolate shops, and German run hostels. Pucon is set amidst privileged natural surroundings; near a volcano, several lakes, nature reserves and thermal baths.

There was a lot of rain during the first 2 days we were in Pucon (Monday/Tuesday) so it was not until Tuesday afternoon that we noticed the huge towering presence of Volcan Villarica outside of town. It is a perfect volcano shape and covered in snow. Most tourists come to Pucon to climb the volcano but at 100 dollars each Claire and I decided to give it a miss. We were also feeling a pinch on our finances at the prospect of spending 3 more months in South America's most expensive regions. So while others were busy on the Wednesday climbing Volcan Villarica, Claire and I spent the day in the nearby national park, Huequehue. It was a full day and different parts of the walk reminded us of various other walks we had done in the past 4 months. The fact that the trail was a real mud-fest in places reminded us of our walk through the Cocoro valley outside Salento in Colombia. Fortunately this time we were wearing our boots and not our sandals. The fact that the last section of the trail on our return seemed to be all uphill reminded us of our walk to the San Pedro cave in Sorata, Bolivia. On both occasions we had no recollection of walking downhill on the outward voyage and so were scratching our heads as we trudged uphill at the end of what had already been a long days hiking. A large portion of the hike was on snow which was a nice novelty...until Claire slipped on her bum. Nothing bruised except her pride. During the walk you get incredible views of pristine mountain lakes, gushing waterfalls and snow capped mountain peaks.

All in all a great days trekking, so when we got back into Pucon we determined that a celebratory beer was in order...which was fine...until we met up with 2 lovely Irish girls (Grainne & Sunniva) who were staying in our hostel and we all proceeded to get completely smashed. Next day it was sick heads all round. We took a walk along the beach and then up to a local lookout point...and then met up with Grainne and Sunniva for an auld hair of the dog. By this stage we had decided that we would like to climb the volcano but unfortunately the weather had turned and we had missed our window. It was time to move on.