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Day 189: Puking to Pucon!
'You live and learn. At any rate, you live'. Douglas Adams
I take (almost) full responsibility for the mess I was in for the journey today! I woke up at quarter past eight, with fifteen minutes to pack and get to the bus station. Fortunately, I was still a bit drunk and the full weight of the hangover hadn't kicked in as I threw everything into my backpack and got a taxi to the bus station. Suffice to say, I made it onto the bus in time, and spent much of the day leaning over a plastic bag, grateful that it didn't contain 'safety holes'. The journey was certainly a bit of a challenge, and memorable for all the wrong reasons! After a couple of hours we had the joy of border crossings, which proved to be somewhat difficult when feeling rather nauseous. I managed to lose my place in the queue running to the bathroom, and a little while later, only just managed to stop the bus as it was pulling away (along with my luggage)! I almost gave up at Osorno where I had to wait two hours for the connecting service
to Pucon, but time passed very slowly, and I was extremely relieved, when having made it onto the second bus, I finally pulled into Pucon bus terminal five hours later.
Having gotten a bit flippant about things like arranging and booking somewhere to stay, I didn't have a clue in which direction I should be looking for a hostel, and was subsequently quite relieved when 'Elly' approached me at the bus station, and assured me that her home, with an empty room, was just around the corner. Thankfully, she wasn't joking about living close by (I can see the buses in the terminal from my bedroom), and I soon found myself ushered into my own room, which proved to be an absolute bargain. Having been made a cup of tea, and given a guided tour of my new, very homely, lodgings, I was feeling a million times better, and settled down to watch television in the tiny sitting room, before snuggling up in bed, for a much needed sleep.
Day 190: Day of leisure
Feeling almost normal, but rather hungry, I surfaced at ten and head into town to find some food. For the leisurely day that I had planned, the weather was great, and after breakfast at a local cafe, I took a book down to the lake to chill out and relax in the lovely sunshine. It was still jumper weather, but in the absence of clouds, rain and wind, it was still really nice to be sitting outside.
After a sufficient amount of time resting and relaxing, I wandered around the town to try and make head or tail of the many many companies offering volcano tours to the nearby Villarica. Not disuaded by the fact that the 'dormant' Volcano Chaiten erupted in the lake district a few hundred kilometres further south yesterday, I'm rather keen to jump on the tourist bandwagon and climb Pucon's continually smoking mountain, overlooking the town. I eventually found an agreeable company, although they did warn me that in the event of rain tomorrow, I shouldn't bother coming to meet them (at seven), since the trip would be cancelled. After the perfect weather today, I can't envisage this being the case, but it's nice to know, since I'd hate to get out of bed for no reason! In the meantime, I was quite happy chilling out for the evening with some food at the hostel with Elly and her small family (partner Eric, and very sweet seven year old son, Helmut) and other guests, and having got myself ready for volcano climbing, I attempted to get an early night
Day 191: What volcano?
I was a bit gutted when I woke up at quarter-past six this morning to find that all views from my bedroom window were obliterated by a torrential thunderstorm, and realising that my volcano trip would inevitably be cancelled, but trying not to be too disappointed, I went back to bed, and soon got back off to sleep. Getting up a couple of hours later, I had coffee with Eric, before heading into town, to try and work out what I should do with my rainy day in Pucon. I really wish I'd taken photos yesterday since today, you can't even see the volcano, let alone climb it, as the whole city is surrounded by thick, low lying cloud. I spent the day a bit bored, mooching around the town, visiting cafes, reading, and eating cake. At three o'clock, I checked the forecast for the next day, and with more rain predicted, I decided that I would probably be wiser cutting my losses and getting a bus up to Santiago that night.
Getting one of the few remaining available seats, I booked a bus, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out at the hostel and around town, before saying goodbye to my hosts and boarding the Santiago service from the bus station next door. Leaving just before nine, the seats on the bus were comfortable enough, and having packed whole load of chocolate to keep myself happy/occupied during the journey, and been provided with a blanket and pillow, I read for a while, before settling down to try and get some sleep.
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