Pucon land of the Volcano

Mike at one with nature!
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Caught the night bus to Pucon, reclining seats so that you are almost horizontal, leg rest, pillow, blanket and a snack, eat your heart out National Express!!!! We arrived in Pucon ahead of schedule and decided to walk to our hostel which was shown as just around the corner from the bus terminal. So armed with our lonely planet map we trudged off with our giant rucksacks and extra day sacks. Only to get lost for the best part of an hour, only to find that the location on the map had changed and the hostel had moved! Mad was dying with the weight of her kit so I ended up carrying three bags!!! We were then charged at by a drunken baffoon, who received a polite shove for his troubles!!! We finally arrived at the hostel which was a fantastic little lodge style building, with wooden beams showing. It was a cloudy day but luckily was not raining, as it does a lot this time of year! We asked where the Villarrica the volcano was as we could not see it, we were told it was hidden behind the clouds…doh.

Mad in front of the Misty mountains, very Xena warrior look!
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We headed into town to check it out, we soon found that we loved the place.

Indiana Jones dash

The second day we spoke with German (pronounced Herman), the owner who drew a makeshift map for a hike that we could do to the lake. We set off only to find that there was no path in the direction he had sent us, we spoke with a local home owner who let us squeeze through his barb wire fence then through his field! Eventually we found a pathway and headed off to the lake, finally walking along the black sand beach. Still no sign of the elusive volcano, does it really exist? While I was happily walking along the sand near to the shore with little waves lapping on the beach, when tranquil turned to turmoil as suddenly the sand beneath my feet sank as a wave flowed under the sand!!!!! Then further to my dilemma of getting submerged up to my shins, all my solid steps behind me had turned to the same sinking sand!!!! As I did my Indiana Jones dash back to avoid sinking further Mad appeared deeply sympathetic and laughed away!!!! Later that evening we set off to the thermal springs, it was cold outside and slightly rainy which made the experience so much better because they were so warm, we had the spring to ourselves at one point!! It was great just lying there in the warm occasionally seeing the moon!

Ray Mears would be proud!
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The following day we rented mountain bikes and set off on an 8km track to a lagoon with waterfalls. The track was steep, up and down, with bumps all the way! We reached the lagoon and had a well earned pick nick. Then off we went again and by the power of grey skull our butts hurt!!! We finally reached the end of the track and had decided to head back along the road, for the sake of our butts. Expecting to see a sign saying Pucon 8 or so km, to our horror it read 19km!!!!! After an arduous journey we finally made it back to the hostel. We are no longer on speaking terms with our butts!

Mike walking happily on the waterfront of lake Villarrica.
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The next day we decided to have a day of wandering the town and the lake front, the weather was starting to clear up and we got our first glimpse of the volcano, it was spectacular, covered in snow in a brilliant white and very close to where we were staying!!! We got chatting with Jo, who had just arrived at the hostel and signed up to climb the volcano the next day. We cooked curry in the evening, much merriment was had with Jo as we were all excited for the following day, as we heard it would only be the three of us climbing. We went outside in the dark to look at the volcano again, amazed as it glowed orange in the night sky, looking like Mount Doom!!! Our guides for the next day, namely Oscar and Marko, arrived and handed out our equipment for the climb, some very stylish bright green waterproofs!!! Yummy!