Where oh where is the volcano?

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Pucon - 23rd to the 24th of May 2009

Crossing the border from Argentina to Chile was an interesting and, dare I say it, Western experience. The border was full of signs telling us what wasn't allowed into Chile which included all fruit and vegetables and any fresh animal products including dairy. We all had to get off the bus where all our bags were scanned and the Chilean border authorities checked the bus to make sure we weren't breaking to rules. Sadly, I was. I had bought apples for Richard and I and when the man came over to lecture us, Richard blamed it all on me even though he had wanted the apple too!

We arrived in a Chilean town where we needed to change buses and discovered neither of us had any money in the accounts we could access. Luckily I was able to instantly transfer cash from my English account to Richard's on the internet and then paid the lady in Argentinian pesos. Once we had some cash, we got tickets to Pucon and eventually arrived there around 7 or 8pm. We were offered a room in a lady's house for 5000pesos, which sounds like a crazy amount of money but it's not! After going to the supermarket, we made some dinner and had an early night.

It was still raining the next morning but after our showers it began to clear up. Pucon is a popular tourist destination but there weren't any tourists around while we were there. We went for a wander around the town, trying to catch a view of the volcano which overlooks Pucon. No luck though - the clouds were too thick so we never did see the volcano. Pucon is a pretty town though, sitting on the banks of a lake and I'm sure it looks even better with clear views of the volcano. We stopped for lunch/dinner in a restaurant and had an amazing dinner. Really fresh salad, fresh bread and roast ribs, accompanied by a glass of wine and followed by cake. Really simple and absolutely delicious. One of the best meals I've had on this trip. We had wanted to go white water rafting in Pucon but decided it would make more sense to go to Santiago instead, as we didn't have a lot of time to spare (Richard needed to get to Santiago for the Champion's League final!). So that night we got the bus at 8.30 and set off on another night bus towards the capital.

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