Blogs from Pucón, Araucanía, Chile, South America - page 3

Après un petit déjeuner délicieux avec salade de fruits frais et jus de framboise frais (et tarte, et toasts fromage & jambon !), direction les thermes « Géometricas » à 1h30 de Pucon, avec des pauses au bord de lacs à l’aller. Il y a plein de termes dans la région, le nombre de bassins et le style diffèrent, mais celles-ci ont la réputation d’être les plus belles. Il y a 17 bassins, avec des températures allant aujourd’hui entre 36 et 42 degrés, idéal pour une fan des douches brulantes ! il y a même deux bassins à 5 degrés pour se rafraichir. Le lieu est vraiment merveilleux, à l’intérieur d’un canyon, au milieu de la verdure, avec un système de passerelles/couloirs au beau design rouge en bois très bien intégré. Même les toilettes sont zen ... read more

The clouds are gone and the sun is out. The view from the front porch of the cabin and out the huge glass window is of clear blue Lago Villarrica and the volcano, Volcán Villarrica. Smiles all around, beautiful view. After breakfast we head out to Parque Nacional Huerquehue (Huerquehue National Park), about an hour away. We like to see national parks back at home in the US and like to stamp our park passport book but here we settle for pictures in front of the sign. This is our second Chilean national park for those counting at home. We set out on the Sendero de los Lagos (Lakes Trail) to see…you guessed it, lakes. The trail passes through some real nice forest of Araucaria trees in the beginning which looks pretty nice but then the ... read more

After Chiloe we have ventured northwards to the town of Pucon on the shaws of Lago Villarrica. The surroundings are pictureque as you may expect of Chile's Lake District.There are a smattering of lakes, white beaches and lush forests, farms and snow capped peaks. The back drop to all of this countryside idyll is Mount Villarrica. This mountain also happens to be a volcano. An active volcano. A molten rock spewing death bringer which last visited hellfire upon the countryside in the 1980s, but has an angry an violent hisory stretching back further than written records. It's also open at the top making it easier for it to spray armageddon for miles in every direction. So why would we come to this potential Mordor? Well, the volcano isn't as scary as I made out and science ... read more

Gold to Crimson This was it; after almost a year and a half among lakes, mountains, volcanoes and glaciers, I was leaving Patagonia. For the eighth and last time, I crossed the southern Andes. On the weekly Sunday afternoon bus from Junin de los Andes, Argentina, we passed through wild west scenery with native forests of prehistoric araucaria trees and Lanin Volcano, whose clouds kindly parted for my last view. After passing through the Paso Tromen (to the Argentines)/Paso Mamuil Malal (to the Chilenos) our funky old bus was stopped by a herd of cattle walking down the middle of the dirt road that is the international highway. We had entered Chile. For the last month, I'd been chasing autumn foliage in Argentina's Lake District. In April, I thrilled to the first leaves yellowing in the ... read more

Coming from Bariloche, we had to change buses in San Martin de los Andes, Argentina, in order to cross the border and arrive to Pucon. We got fortunate not to get stuck there and were able to snag a pair of the few remaining seats. The 6 hour ride was smooth enough, except for the border crossing which was located at the base of the imposing Lanin Volcano. The process was more strict than we expected. They take their agriculture very seriously; all of our bags were unloaded and scanned, and we had to declare any raw foods. Fortunately they didn´t toss the pizza or stirfry we had made the night prior but they did take a couple delicious Fuji apples. Fruitless, we got back on the bus and continued down a dirt/volcanic ash road for ... read more