During our last two weeks in Chile, we took some time out from packing up our apartment and preparing to make the move back to the Northern Hemisphere to entertain our visitors AND have some last minute Chile-fun ourselves. High school friends Megan and Brian arrived to sweat-box Santiago, and almost immediately we hopped an overnight bus south to beautiful Pucon.
I am Pucon's biggest cheerleader. I will rah-rah all day about this place to anyone that will listen. I know I am not a Chilean travel expert by any means, and there are MANY places in the string bean that we didn't get the chance to see this time around, but I will still argue that Pucon is among the loveliest and most charming. It is a small lake/ski town that explodes in the summer, and is a perfect center for all kinds of outdoor activities. We visited once before when my sister visited in February, and even though the weather didn't cooperate that time, I knew I wanted to go back before we left Chile. Megan and Brian visiting was the perfect excuse, and so we took them on a "vacation within a vacation" for 3 days.
We arrived very early, dropped off our bags, and began the mission to find breakfast in the hazy morning. After finding a pastry shop, we took a walk to the plaza to find a place to sit, eat, and plan our day. By pure chance, Javier (founder and tour leader of "Free Pucon Tours") heard us speaking English and invited us to come along on what turned out to be an incredibly enjoyable walking tour of the town. He explained a lot about the Mapuche culture and showed us many "if it weren't cloudy, this would be a GREAT view of the volcano" vantage points, and eventually a great view of the lake and town that we never would have found on our own. After the tour was over, our group, along with Javier, enjoyed the improving by the minute weather on a patio at the Biergarten.
By the time we finished our beers and pretzels, the clouds had begun to clear, giving us our first views of the stunning Volcan Villarica. We would make a point to annoying point out the volcano for the remainder of our stay.
We spent the rest of what turned out to be a perfect afternoon, hanging out on the lake, paddle boating, posing for pictures with the volcano, finding Brian his first Pisco Sour, and eventually returning to Javier's suggestion for the best sunset view in town.
Our second day, we spent the day hiking in Huerquehue National Park. The Tres Lagos hike took us up some fairly steep terrain, but gave us incredible views of lakes, waterfalls, and of course our BFF Volcan Villarica. When we returned to the entrance, the next bus wasn't leaving for another hour and a half, so we exercised our hitch hiking chops successfully and got a ride back into town with an American couple from Arizona. We spent our evening doing our part to support the Chilean Wine industry.
Pucon is a mecca for outdoor activities, and on our last day we took two trips with the fine people of Aqua Adventura. We spent the morning "canopying", which is zip-lining, through the Araucaria trees and across the river below. There are no pictures of this, because I had already sacrificed one camera to the Andes... no need to tempt the fates. Then, after lunch, we decided to try our hand at "hydrospeed" which is essentially white-water rafting, but take away the raft and add a foam kickboard instead. This was incredibly fun and definitely a challenge. Our instructor girl was incredibly patient as she told us to get in straight lines and we had trouble both understanding what she meant and executing. The good news: we didn't look ridiculous at all......
The run-off election between Evelyn and Michelle for president was also taking place this day. When Michelle won, the streets exploded (as per usual) with car honks and banner waving. We gave a celebratory cheer just for good measure as we got on our bus to head back to Santiago as a Pucon cheersquad.
