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Published: April 1st 2015
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Sarah: There is a lot to do in and around Pucon, mostly outdoorsy. Therefore, yesterday, knowing that the weather was going to take a turn for the worse on Wednesday, we wanted to choose wisely what we would do on what may be the last good-weather day.
We settled on a bike rental with a destination of 'Ojos del Caburgua' which was a local beauty spot about 12 miles from Pucon, making a 24 mile round-trip. After brekkie, I set about my duties as Chief Sandwich Officer, loaded up on water (which is a lot less hassle in Chile as we can drink straight out the tap) and headed off to rent our bikes!
The bikes were a lot better than our bikes at home, which makes a change from most foreign bike rentals that we'd done before. Rodrigo, our hostel host, had given us simple directions and assured us that although it was quite a long way it was a pretty easy cycle. It was exactly what we were looking for since our legs were still a bit tired from the previous day! We managed to understand the Spanish directions to the waterfalls but I think that 'easy
cycle' was translated as something that we wanted to hear, rather than what Rodrigo actually said...
After a few miles we had got to the gravel road that we were to follow all the way to the waterfalls. To start with it was flat, although the gravel was hard going, and therefore not too bad. Then the hills started...Taking a gravel hill on a bike is a lot more than my little legs could take. Nick acted like my pace setter, climbing the hill a few metres ahead of me, the only difference being that I couldn't catch up and was not going to pull out a burst of speed to cross the line first!
We took it easy, taking in the amazing vistas and enjoying the downhill sections, while taking care to stay on two wheels (which has not always been my speciality in the past). The river that we were following was an amazing blue/green colour, there was no traffic apart from the odd horse, there were 360 degree views and the sun was shining, whilst not being too hot for a good cycle. I was in heaven!
After a few hours we made it
to the 'Ojos del Caburgua' and we were rewarded with the most beautiful waterfalls. I'd read that they can get very busy so we were presently surprised that there were only a handful of cars in the car park. I had expected to go to the waterfall, take a few snaps and head off again. However, there were lots of little paths through the trees around the waterfalls so that you could see all the different falls from lots of different angles. We spent time wandering around until our tummies got the better of us and we found a bench for lunch.
After a bit more post-lunch wandering around the waterfalls and 'Laguna Azul' we picked up our bikes and started home with a bit of trepidation for the ups that had been downs on the way there. Although the bikes were very good, I think that as quality of the bike increases, comfortableness of the seat decreases! After the break at the waterfalls it was a pretty painful experience mounting the bikes once more, however, it did seem that the 'ups' were actually not as bad as we thought they were going to be! On the way back
we had views of the smoking volcano ahead of us, which had emerged from the clouds.
We returned to a sunny Pucon and headed back to the hostel to cook (sausages, jacket tattie and broccoli - yummy little taste of home). We'd also treated ourselves to some dulce de leche ice cream (impulse buy after a hard days cycle!) for pud, which we enjoyed with the latest episode of 'Fortitude'. All in all, another really good day with all our favourite things - bit of outdoor exercise, yummy grub and relaxing in the evening. There was no lava to be seen last night but the previous two nights were absolutely amazing. I can't believe that I've seen actual lava erupting from a volcano!
Today (Wednesday) is as rainy as the forecast predicted and so our goals are to get up to date on blogs (check), get to the post office to post postcards written almost two weeks ago (not check) and recover from the previous day's activities (almost check, still a bit saddle-sore). Also, today marks one calendar month since we left! It feels like we've been away for ages but I think that's because we've done so
much since arriving in Rio. I'm sure if we were at work the weeks would have flown by. Here's to 5 more months of fun!
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Jean Adams
non-member comment
Stunning
Loving the scenery-spectacular- and the glimpses of you both. Lovely. Sarah-looking lovely as always AND sandwich maker spectacular as your husband intimates! Nick-loving the beard. While trio sounds fantastic. Very impressed that you actually saw volcano. Much love and a very happy Easter. Mum & Dad A XXXX