Wednesday evening we boarded the night bus in Santiago to travel the nine hours to Pucón. I was pleasantly surprised (and admittedly, very excited) when I saw how comfortable this bus ride was going to be. With Ally as my seat neighbour, I wouldn't be sharing half of my seat with some old woman's big bum, and furthermore, the seats were designed to recline in the same manner as a "lazy-boy" chair. It was undoubtedly the best sleep I have ever had on a bus.
We arrived in Pucón early on Thursday morning and checked in at our "Tree House" hostel- recommended by Julia, Ryan, Alex, and Jon who had passed through the town a mere three weeks prior. The fog, rain, and exhaustion of endless ESD partying led to a quiet day in the hostel and wandering town. Pucón is described as the entrance to the cordillera and is home to the active Villarrica Volcano. Pucón also sits between two lakes and a rushing white water river and is described by Lonely Planet as backpackers Disney Land. And it is... offering white water rafting, bungee, zip lining, skiing, kayaking, horse riding, thermal hot springs, sailing and more. I already know I will be back!
With the volcano ascent as our main target, we soon realised that Saturday would be our only likely option for attempting the climb due to the poor weather forecast for Friday, so we booked in for a Saturday climb, keeping our fingers crossed for sunshine and low winds. Thursday evening we headed off to Los Pozones hot springs, about 45minutes outside of Pucón, nestled in the mountains and open 24hours. We turned into the small parking lot and walked the short trail to the nine pools scattered along the river side below. It looked fake.
 |
| A view of the springs on the walk down, with the river visible to the right. |
The steam rose eerily from the stone pools, with the sound of the gushing river humming in the background and the light slowly fading from the sky. We snuck some beers in and soaked up the deliciously warm water- and even though there were no stars to see- I felt like I was in an oasis paradise.
 |
Ally climbing into the first pool- directly from the towel hut! |
Today we ventured off on some mountain bikes toward Lago (Lake) Caburgua, approximately 22km outside of Pucón. It was a hilly, muddy adventure- one that was slightly more than anticipated given our plans to climb the volcano tomorrow. We've chalked it up to good training.
 |
En route to Lago Caburgua |
 |
| We made some friends along the way. |
 |
| We made it! |
After nearly 3 hours riding the hilly mountain side, we opted for the highway route to get back to Pucon, particularly since it had begun to pour rain. We made it back at quite the clip, exhausted but feeling fantastic.
We've just had our pre-climb briefing and have been told that the weather looks good for tomorrow morning. With a 6:30am start it will be a long day- but one we can't wait to start!
No comments:
Post a Comment