I’m writing this on a bus heading South to Chiloe after leaving Pucòn where I have been for the last four days. It’s hard to think that just a week ago I was in Mendoza were I’d been sleeping with barely a sheet touching me as it was so hot to Pucòn which has been warm in the day but dropping to around 5 degrees at night time. Most people might complain of this but getting into a freezing dorm to snuggle under thick blankets is heaven to me! Coupled with everything I’ve done the last week days I’ve slept really well, and after a fairly hectic week of Mendoza, Valparaiso, Santiago to Pucòn in four days I needed it!
Pucòn is 750 km south of Santiago, and is a resort town for a plethora of outdoor activities. It’s on a beautiful lake with Volcán Villarrica just outside town. It’s coming to late spring here, so still relatively quiet, I hear by January and February the place is buzzing, so I think we timed our visit pretty well. I’d travelled down with the British couple from Santiago, we arrived on the night bus around 11ish, by one we’d checked in and had lunch so we decided to take some bikes out for a few hours. I hadn’t really been paying too much attention and had thought we were just going on a light cycle round town. Luckily they’d encouraged me to wear a helmet, as some of the route was off road single track through bushes and trees, and a lot of it on loose shale road that was pretty slippy in parts. Also quite a few steep incline and declines! I’ve not done loads of cycling in my life, until this summer when I bought a city bike on giving back my company car after leaving work. I really enjoyed my last two months in the UK cycling everywhere, but is was all pretty flat and easy. I actually think this was my first mountain bike I’ve ever been on??!! Anyway I didn’t come off, and the scenery was absolutely stunning. The goal of the ride was to reach some waterfalls. They were beautiful, the water was so clear; it was well worth the two hour cycle to reach them. The return leg was down a main road which we had though was going to be an easy way back, but the head wind was pretty full on! We took to cycling very close together an alternately who was at the front to break the wind. It was a great trip, all though a bit further then I’d banked on…40km.
That evening I joined a group who were heading up to one of the many hot springs in the area. It was a pretty cool setting walking down some steep steps into a valley with the river running past. There were six pools, you started at the bottom and worked your way back up to the top which was the hottest. I think it certainly helped my muscles recover from the bike ride. On our return an Asado was cranked up in the garden of the hostel, a pretty nice way to end my first day there!
Sunday I had a leisurely start, had lunch with a German girl in the town and wandered around a bit. In the afternoon I went Hydrospeeding. I have never heard of this before, it’s pretty hard to describe so here’s a link.Hydrospeeding .I’m not in it. In essence your in a full wetsuit with flippers on holding onto a pretty substantial foam float in a river where they also do white water rafting….so yes RAPIDS! In my group there were just five of us, two Dutch girls from my hostel and two Swiss lads. We had to follow our guide down the river to avoid getting pummelled on the rocks or ending up in the wrong currents. I can’t tell you how fun it was, I loved it! Some stretches were quite calm but we hit plenty of really decent rapids. There was one spot we could paddle back up stream behind a rock and then onto a rapid that was like a wave that you could surf/body board. I was easily the best in our group at it all, I’ll do it again if I come across it.
That night I went for dinner with a few of the girls from my hostel but I wasn’t feeling particularly well, I had a very early night as the next day day was Volcano day! There were nine is us from our hostel that were climbing the volcano we had to be up at 6.30 which these days for me is very early!!! I still was feeling a bit dodgy, and not really in the best way after the two previous days activities. I was half thinking I should delay it till the following day, one of the dutch girls had some Imodium so I went ahead with it. We were kitted up with wind proof jacket and trousers and hiking boots. We headed off and were at the foot of the Volcano climb by 7.30 at 1400 metres. There was an option to take a chairlift the first stint for an extra couple of £$, which with the way I was feeling I did. I was now in a group with just the two Dutch girls and an older Belgian guy. Long story short it was really really really hard. I don’t think I’ve ever done any real “hiking” in my life, and walking on snow/ice and escalating to 2847 metres was not easy at all. I’m not sure why I thought it would have been. I had a lot of chats with myself on the way up to get there, also helped by the guide giving me his ski poles to help walk, and then he took my daypack off me to. It wasn’t so much the muscle work as just trying to catch my breath the whole time. I did feel like a bit of a useless wimp but I got there! At the top the you can peer into the Volcano crater and depending on the lava levels and the smoke you may or may not see the lava. On our day the level was low and the smoke quite thick, but just wondering around it was unreal. And the views from the top were stunning, all though I don’t think the Sony cybershot point and shoot has really done it any justice…. The one thing that kept me going on the way up was the fact I knew that going down was going to be so fun…sledging!!! It was pretty mental, and probably a bit dangerous, but awesome fun! We just had the little plastic seat sledges and carved little paths through the snow. What had taken five hours to get up took less then an hour to get down… Again bit if borrowed video footage to show it. Volcano sledging
We returned to hostel aptly named “Paradise Pucòn”, were we had Chori Pan with homemade Salsa and ice tea. I spent the afternoon sunbathing on the beach by the lake, it felt so surreal to be lying in the sun that afternoon, when earlier that morning I was up a snow capped Volcano in full on gear. I had a final dinner with the British couple who were heading off the following morning.
Yesterday my last day was a day or much needed R&R, bit of trip planning and sunbathing. Dinner with the German girl and a few drinks back at the hostel before my early start this morning.
I’m sure that in part it’s down to timing, and if I was there in four weeks time I’d have a different opinion of the place as it gets busier, and the weather was perfect for my stay, but honestly I felt like I could live there…just beautiful!! And another fantastic hostel, were I felt like I was at home after five minutes. So thank you Pucòn and thank you Hostel Paradise Pucòn and the team for a truly great four days.
BexBAtoRio 