Falling in love again... In Pucón
From Temuco I made my way to Pucón. Originally I'd I intended to arrive here in a week or so as February is peak season, but whilst I've wanted to visit a number of Parque Nacionals it's been incredibly difficult doing so by public transport. However, I knew that it would be possible from Pucón and so I bit the bullet and just decided to put up with the place being full of people. What a great decision! I stayed in Gecko hostel just on the outskirts of the town, which is really quite small so about a 3 minute walk away from the centre! It had such a great group of people in it. The first night I was there they were having an asado (BBQ) so I put my name down straight off! I then went for a wander round town.
One of the main attractions of the area is the active volcano, Volcan Villarrica, around 15kms from Pucon which many people go there to climb. For me, it was love at first sight ❤️❤️❤️ It is one of the most perfectly shaped volcanoes, and had a dusting of snow at its peak. It was just stunning even wearing the little cloud as it was the first time I saw it. My picture does it no justice at all...
That night we had the asado, which was amazing. It started with chorripan, a chorizo style sausage, and then we had beef and lots of salads. It was delicious. We also had lots of beer, red wine and pisco and so didn't make it to bed until 4am. This was followed by a very poor night's sleep as a couple decided to not be bothered by the 5 other people in the room and carried on doing the wild thing regardless of our presence 😳😠🙄. Whilst I am aware that this sort of thing goes on in hostels, this is the first time I've ever encountered it (that's what bathrooms are for!) and all I can say is, hopefully the last too! Anyway, it meant that the next day I was hungover, tired and extremely thankful that it was chucking it down with rain which knocks out most activities in Pucón! So the most I managed was a walk around the town, a trip to the supermarket and booking an extra night in the hostel to give me a day to do all the things I'd failed to do that day!
We did, however, have the most amazing sunset which was a good sign as the next day I'd planned to do a walk in Huerquehue Parque Nacional.
I was joined on the walk by Haden and Amelia, a couple in my room (not that couple!) with whom I'd gotten friendly during the asado. Although they live in Australia, Haden is originally from New Zealand and Amelia from the UK so when we met Cecilia on the bus going there, who was also from NZ, we became a perfectly balanced group of 4!
There are a couple of different walks you can do but we chose to do the Los Lagos route that takes you, as you might have guessed, around the lakes! I genuinely feel so lucky to be seeing the places I'm seeing. I'm just going to give you a few pictures of the views we saw on the first half of our walk...
We stopped for lunch at the edge of Lago Verde
Where Cecilia and Haden went for a swim in the lake. Amelia and I were much more cautious and just dipped our feet!
On our way back, we stopped by a couple of waterfalls which were also, like everything else, just beautiful.
And there was this really cool tree!
We had aimed for the 5.10pm bus and despite thinking for a while that we might not make it we arrived back at the bus stop with around 25 minutes to spare. You do come downhill much quicker than you go up it! The queue for the bus was huge and we were fairly sure we wouldn't make it on but amazingly we all did and made it safely back on Pucón where we had the obligatory selfie
then said our goodbyes to Cecilia and headed back to the hostel.
The following day I had booked a trip to Termas Geometricas, a thermal pool complex that was in the middle of Panguipulli Parque Nacional. After the previous day's walk it was just what my aching muscles needed! For this trip I was joined by Marion, a French person who had arrived in the hostel the night before. We met Emily, from Germany, on the bus and the three of us spent a wonderful three hours moving between pools that ranged in temperature between 9 degrees (OK we didn't put more than a toe in that one!) but mainly between 31-41 degrees with one as high as 45 degrees (OK we didn't put more than a toe in that one either!). The complex was absolutely beautiful and we snook an extra couple of minutes there to take some photos.
That night we had another asado in the hostel. This time it was cooked 'on the rock' which is basically cooking it in a pan over the coals and it was a mix of sausage, chicken, beef, peppers, eggs and cheese and served with a tomato and onion salsa. Again, it was delicious, and again there copious amounts of alcohol but I had the wind completely taken out of my sails by a guy who said he was surprised to hear I was English and Marion French as he thought we were mother and daughter! Could not believe it. It was like having a pin stuck in my happy balloon and so I just thought sod it! and went to bed!
This did mean that I got up early the next day, and so I went to see my volcano (yes it's mine, we're in love, don't you remember me saying?) without the cloud. It was stunning.
I just sat and looked at it for around half an hour. Then after a wander for another 15 minutes or so I remembered that Pucón has a free walking tour starting at 11am and so I went to do that. It was fab, with a really great mix of people. There were 5 of us who had just turned up for the tour and then about 10 others who were on a G Adventure tour from Santiago, through Argentina to Brazil. It made it a really good group. Some of the things we saw were the black sand beach
Mapuche statues in the Plaza de Armas
Most of us will know it as the Monkey Puzzle tree.
I loved that all the road signs have little volcanoes on them
This shrine
Where people leave thank you messages when the person they've been praying for gets well.
Apparently a British person a couple of weeks ago asked if complaint letters are left if the person doesn't recover! After that, I had originally planned for this day to be a day visiting Villarrica and Lican Rey, but I'd been through them on my way to the termas and so decided to get an ice cream instead and then I headed back to the beach and sat drinking a beer, watching the gliders land and the world go by in general! It was perfect!
That evening I went to watch the sunset over the lake. We been told where the best place to do this in Pucón is during our walking tour and I spotted a number of familiar faces! It was stunning and the setting sun turned my volcano red.
And that was the perfect ending to my stay in Pucón. The following morning I made my way to Valdivia which is where I currently am. It's very beautiful here too, but I'm missing my volcano...
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