Blogs from Pucón, Araucanía, Chile, South America - page 20

As we traded five days in Bolivia for five more days in Chile, we thought we'd take a short trip away from the city life in Santiago. Patagonia would have been nice, but that's a trip that takes a minimum of two weeks, so we found this nice little place, Pucón, 11 hours on an overnight bus south-southeast of Santiago. The main attraction was Volcan Villarrica, one of South America's five most active volcanoes, with daily eruptions (though the last time the lava got outside the crater was in 1984). We arrived early in the morning and were picked up from the bus station by the very nice staff at Hostel donde Germán. The hostel couldn't be more perfect. Situated 10-15 minutes walk from town, with views of the mountain to the north and the glacier-covered ... read more

I may have been on the shore of any lake in Wisconsin. The motor boats were coming in for fuel, there were jet skis for rent (I mean moto acuaticas), and I was sitting close enough to smell that familiar smell of water with a hint of gasoline from the fuel station. But the sand was black, which I cannot remember seeing in Wisconsin, and a glance to my left gave me a full view of Volcán Villarrica. I arrived here in Pucón, in the south of Chile, by way of a ten hour overnight bus ride from Santiago. It reminds me very much of a Colorado ski town. Many buildings have a chalet style and are of natural wood construction. Pucón is a place drawing in tourists who use the town as their adventure headquarters. ... read more

From Santiago we travelled overnight to Pucon. Content with our last feed of Lasagne at Kathys. Pucon, Chile We spent 2days doing some extreme mountain biking efforts in the surrounding hills. The area was rich with trails and waterfalls. Despite this on the second day we spent 4hours ascending a gruelling hill in search of a waterfall. With the ridiculous directions of several children selling woolen socks we cycled past it and missed our destination. However, the disappointment of not seeing the 70ft waterfall was overcome by the shear exhileration of descending down the gravel road at break neck speed. There was definately some close calls. I attribute this to a lack of front brakes, dodgy gravel patches and oncoming cars around sharp blind corners. The 4hour trip up was recipricated by a 20minute descent! ... read more

Leaving Santiago was a wrench as we had such a good time with Penelope, James, Henry and Isobel. Dipping our toes back into the murky world of flash-packing we have moved further down south into the Chilean Lake District or little Deutschland as it could be called. Were it not for the towering snow-capped volcanoes dotted around the region you could really believe you were in the south of Germany. The lush green surroundings are very European but more importantly the whole place is full of Germans. The first of many influxes from Germany took place in the mid 19th century and as a consequence, much of the architecture would be more at home in Bavaria than Chile. Many of the shop signs are in German and you're as likely to find apfel strudel on the ... read more

We arrived in Valaparaiso bloated and tired from steak and wine abuse and vowed to stay off it for a few days. I treated myself to chicken and beer. I didn't really know what to expect from Valaparaiso, I knew nothing about it, we were only there because Lucy had read about it in a novel. On arrival following a quick look around, she said it wasn't really that much like the book had described it. I asked when the novel was written. "Recently" came the reply. "...but the novel was set in 1850" However it turned out to be a great town to visit with a different atmosphere than most South American cities of its size. A famous old port town, there is only a couple of blocks on the flat before it rises steeply ... read more