Pucon

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Being all chilled out after Bariloche we headed for Pucon in Chile. This place had been recommended by a few people we'd met along the way and so glad they did. We had any absolute ball. It's only a small enough town and is tourist driven mainly but doesn't retain that feeling plus once agin we hit luck by accident on the hostel front staying in the El Refugio. Really cool and relaxed place which was taken care of by a couple of other backpackers who had decided to stay for awhile in the town. Felt like being back in college or at home in your own place. Dee took a particular liking to it lounging about ... at one stage I think she was admitting the new people arriving... and relaxing in the swinging chair. She is now definitely gettin one when she gets home!!!
3 Aussies we'd been meeting along the way also turned up over the days we were there aswel which led to some mayhem and alot of fun.

So for the things we did well we strolled around the local beaches beside the town, thee black sand which is kinda weird to be on. weather was great bar the second last day when it pissed out of the heavens. The big attraction in the town is the active volcano Villarrica which is snow capped (about 2500-2900m) and climbable. Dee decided against the climb which is strenuous enough so I went with a few others from the hostel. We had pretty amazing views up to about 3/4´s of the way up then it clouded over and didn't lift so once again my view of a mountain top was sabotaged by nature. So I didn't get to see into the crater only breath the beautiful sulphur fumes coming from it. But I did get to see some pictures of what it does look like from others a few days later!!!!
The climb itself was cool with part in gravel tracks and then snow and ice was taken on weilding our axe and crampons..the axe being your brake in case you started sliding down.. and then climbed on cooled areas of lava flow. yeh could feel the heat in the rocks near the top though.
We decided to do some white water rafting here aswel on a grade 4 river.. neither of us having done it before. Think I can say both of us really enjoyed it and it wasn´t as tough as we had expected..helped by a good guide on board..and included an area we had to get out and jump off rocks into the river from about 15-20ft as the rapid at that point was a grade 6. We both did it with wobbly knees me being a non too confident swimmer and Dee just not liking the height I think.. the video may surface at some point!!
On another night we headed for the famed hot springs which are out door and heated by the volcanic activity. We went with pretty much everybody from the hostel for a 9pm bath fueled by just a little beer and vodka. The springs were beautiful with areas with varying temperature.. we stayed in the hottest pretty much the whole night.. really relaxing evening.
After that there was mainly relaxing a small walk I did with a Brad and Mick.. 2 of the Ozy guys.. to a hiddin waterfall ..we did find it!
We stayed on for 6 days there more than planned but place was just too good to leave. But on we went for Vallpariso...

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