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Published: December 5th 2005
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So just got back to Santiago from my 3 day adventure in Pucon, 10 hour bus ride south of Santiago. the whole aim of the trip was to climb an active Volcano and get out and see a bit of Chile´s bonito countryside. unfortunately and probably to mums satisfaction, the weather was too wet to climb. But for those headed to the south of Chile oneday Pucon is a cute little town with plenty of cool stuff to do.
I arrived by bus at around 8 am and started solo wandering thru rain into town to find a hostel, food, coffee and cigarette. (a backpackers daily chores) Turned out the town didn´t open until 10 am. killed a bit of timing reflecting on life, thinking where my bro would be right this instant and how my sode is doing, when a cafe owner was nice enough to open up a little earlier and give me a warm cup of coffee. aaahhhh, the small pleasures of life. hot coffee, rain and cigarette.
ended up hitting an internet cafe and seaching the many hostals online. Called a guy and he came and picked me up suspiciously immediately. ( a little to
Team America
extreme guys livin on the edge, Recognise! keen) So we get to the "hostel" and turns out to be his very small house, shows me my very small and cold room downstairs and the deal is done. Very convincing dude. It turned out there was a couple more rooms in the house with a french couple and during breakfast two albino muy harmonic Danish backpackers arrive. Over the course of breakfast me and the Danes bond quickly and decide to take up the owner, Señor Bravo´s offer to rent his car and hit the road in search of waterfalls, a lake and natural hot springs. CHILEAN ROAD TRIP!
Once we got the piece of rattling junk he called a coche, on the road and rollin we were feeling pretty good. We checked the waterfalls, very cool, missed the entrance to the lake so we headed along the dirt, pot hole filled road sucking in the beauiful landscape of green hills, huge mountains whilst bouncing along to the Harmonic Danes, great rendition of California Dreaming on our way to the Los Pozones (hot springs) 42 degree water.
As Paris Hilton would say, the Hot Spings, were, like, HOT! soooo relaxing, we had the river at about
Los Pozones
"the rules and regulations are made to be broken" El Guia Valentine 5-10 degrees right beside us so we were doing a few hots and colds to keep us appreciating the goodness of both sensations. Decided after a couple of hours it was time to head home, when we got back up to the car, had some trouble unlocking the doors to get in, but eventually they worked and off we went on our merry danish singing way. Picked up a 70 year old hitchhiker heading into town. Sucked a bit of interesting Volcano info out of him, had a beer and late lunch then made our way back to the hostel/casita. I went to open my door to my room when i realised i was about to use the same keys as the ones we had just used to drive home with. wait up whats going on here?¿? turns out i´d lost the freakin car keys somewhere in the raging river probably and the shit box car was open to any offer of a key it got.
Well Señor Bravo was pretty pissed, didnt´have a spare set which he needed to open the spare tyre. But all was smoothed over pretty well, but i dont think our relationship with him will
sweet hostal in Santiago
square is full by day with Preachers, street performers and old dudes playing chess. Nice mix ever be the same.
I have thrown in a couple of other pictures, one of me and the two danes and Jason from the deep south of USA before we all went down the level 3/4 river rapids on some small foam floating devices. its called Hydro Speed, Awesome, cold, adrenaline pumping, large bump on shin from large hard rocks fun. That night we went back to heat the body up in the hot springs with our new Chilean friend and Guide Valentine and chilled out relaxing in the fog filled valley, suckin back cervezas and red wine. Great day all round. (Valentines details i have if anyone wants the best tours, just ask me)
The hostal i was staying at, turned out it was housing a whole family as well. Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, MUm, Son and daughter. Not sure where they all slept. I ended up spending a bit of time playing with Ernan, the little guy. He was such a great kid and spoke a very similiar level of spanish to me, so we bonded easily. He was pretty spun out by the fact i could take a picture of him and he could see it
straight away. In the end it was a very warm hostal and am super glad i found it. Was a true Chilean family experience and feel lucky to have met two great Danish dudes.
buen viajes Christian y Mads.
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Alex
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adventurous trip
Not a long trip yet, but full of adventures already with a little touch of slapstick like lost car keys and so ! A friend of mine,a musician from Austria, is in Peru at the same time and Montezuma´s revenge struck him for the fourth time in 3 weeks, as he told in his last report, so there is a certain hope, that Montezuma is concentrating on him and does not plan, to disturb your trip !