Puncon

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Jan 26 end
So I met up with the guys for dinner. Jordan wasn't feeling well so he stayed behind which was a bummer. Anyway we walked to the restaurant and were very surprised how nice it was, almost fine dining, mike and John were there waiting for us. We ordered 3 apps some calimari, grapes and BBQ provolone cheese, all of which were pretty delicious. I ordered the asado di tira (ribs of the cow), again was pretty delicious. Donkey ordered the lomito which I didn't realize was a filet, that was super tender and yes delicious. Then it was desert time I ordered the quesso e dulce (sweet potato jam and cheese) a very typical local dessert. I had forgot I had it last time I was here. It was pretty good. The jam isn't really jam it's gellitian sort of. Anyway eventually the bill came and I tried to see if the company would pay for it and John said "we had three asados". I understood but still think the company should pay for it it was still our 12th day and we only had breaky. It was a good dinner and nice way to say bye to the guys. Mike is stuck in Mendoza until the 5th so I think I'm going to hit puncon and the hop back over and visit him after that for a bit. Would have been nicer to go straight there but should be ok either way. I walked with donkey Emily and Carey home and then said good bye to them walked to my hostel and nicked off to bed. 

Jan 27
Well after a long late dinner I had to get up early for my high Andes tour. I was feeling a little sick yesterday donkey gave me some emergency packets and I had some gummy vitamins I took, hopefully I don't catch what Jordan has. Anyway I'm on the bus transfer now for the tour. 
Well the tour wasn't the best. The view of he Andes was very nice but I'm sure that's the same view I'll get when I cross over to chile and the incan ruins weren't anything special. So it was sort of a let down. I did get to enter the park of aconguaga and snap a few pics but you can see it from Mendoza. I did meet a Israeli girl who has family in new jersey and is going to be there in june so we traded info and might meet up this summer, guess Israel will be on my next trip. The tour ended pretty late but I got dropped off at the bus stop which was cool becaue I bought my tickets for chile. Mendoza to Santiago then Santiago to puncon. Should be cool. When I got back to my hostel I cooked up dinner, steak and potatoes then called mom and dad. It was really nice to talk to them. I think I miss them more now that I am getting older. 
I checked my email and mike told me he was able to change his flight now so I could have gone straight down to his place but unfortunately my tickets aren't refundable so I'll just have to hop back over after puncon, plus it'll give him some time to chill with his wife and kid. 

Jan 28
So today was my horse riding tour. It was ehh as well we rode for maybe an hour or so not very long, although my but started to hurt by the end. It's a desert here so the scenery wasn't the best would have been cool if we went more into the hills/mts oh well. Hopefully puncon will be better and barlioche should be cool with mike. After the horse riding I got some lunch at one of the 100s of hot dog places. I figure when I Rome. So the hot dog was for mom it didn't taste like ours but not bad, It was a double and at least a foot long and had ketchup, cheese, mayo, some other sauce, lettuce and tomato. After that I went to get some famous gelato ice-cream "for" dad. I had chocate Nevada and cookies and cream. I actually finished it too. Then I went back to my hostel and spent the rest of the day looking over the Lonely planet for chile. Jordan stopped by to use my memory card reader and he gave me some music off his comp. He told me they all were going to drink at his hostel later tonight but I was super tired and didn't feel up to it. So we said good bye I made dinner and nicked off to bed. 

Jan 29
So i didn't sleep well last night people kept shutting off the ac for some reason. But I got up had breaky then repacked my bags and just mucked around until my bus 2pm to chile. 
The bus ride was very beautiful through the andes mts. The boarder crossing went smoothly and we were now on the down side of the pass. I have a few hours layover in Santiago before my over night bus to puncon. 
Which went smoothly I ate some weird steak sandwich and just hung out a bit. 

Jan 30
Unfortunately the bus was about 1 and 1/2'hours late I tried texting Phillippe but I don't think it went through so when I got to town I had to walk to the hostel. Phillippe warmly welcomed me though.  He showed me around and sorted me with my room and a list of activities to do. So I showered up and then book a rafting trip for the avo. I then walked to town to have a bite and walk around. There are tons of travel/adventure companies so in checked a few of them out to compare prices and what not. Then I had to grab a burger and hurry back to my rafting trip. It was the second biggest burger I think it, was on par with the ones day and I got in Argentina years ago, and it was delicious. Anyway I got picked up for my rafting trip and transferred to the river. We suited up, Josh an american kayaker was our safety kayaker. He went over the rules and safety and then we were on our way. My guide was Carlos he was a big local guy who seriously reminded me of John bulishe. He was really funny and had that weird fakish laugh. The river was pretty fun. I didn't get to paddle up front like I normally do which is way better than in the back but it was pretty solid class 4 and 5 it had alot of drops/little water falls so it was really fun the river was called the upper Trancura. There was a class 6 that we had to walk around and the raft guides ran, which was insane a solid doublish waterfall. Oh on one of the first rapids we tried surfing the boat and I was paddling really hard then lost my balance and fell in everyone said it was like slow motion watching me fall in the water haha. I was trying to stick it but couldn't. When I fell in I grabbed the boat but couldn't get back in because the water was pushing me back down. So I took a breath and went under the boat and popped out on the other side. At the end I spoke to Josh about what his does which is kayak guide in the states for 4 months then comes down here for about 8. He majored in outdoor Ed, in Colorado I think. I wish I knew that major was an option when I went. 
When I got back to town I went to the supermarket picked up some food to make dinner went back to the hotel made some chicken Alfredo then nicked off to bed. 

Jan 31
So today I had my canyoning trip. It was pretty nice, super cold though. I was expecting a bit more caving like in new zealand but we did more river walking, rappelling and waking in the small canyon. It was pretty but like I said super cold and we moved pretty fast. When I got back Phillippe the hostel owner and I went to town and I booked the kayaking course and the volcano climb. I then spent the avo trying to find one of the gourds the argetinas drink mate out of, they have them here but I think there expensive so I'll wait till I go to barlioche. I went back to the hostel ate my left overs and hung out with the 3 cute chillian girls here.  

Feb 1 D @ N
So today I had my volcano trip. I had a 6 am wake up. I was supposed to get picked up by 6:35 I had to call Phillippe to call the company to pick me up. They had a driver there with in a couple of minutes. I went over to the camp base, grabbed my packed gear bag and mountain boots hopped back in the car and headed up to the volcano, which is called volcano Villarrica, I think it has an elevation of 2800 meters. We drove to the base of the ski resot based on the volcano then had the option of taking the chairlift up 400 meters or walking up. They really pushed the chairlift so we all ended up taking it up, from there we walked up something like 1000 or 1200 meters. We were switch backing up on a small boot pack and were were going at a super slow place so it was incredibly boring and I think more tiring because we were going so slowly. It took us about 3 hours and 15 mins to get to the top we stopped a few times to rest along the way and put on our snow gear they gave us. They said depending on the conditions we could have 45 mins on top or 10 seconds because of the weather and the fumes from the volcano because it is still actively venting. Well we lucked out it was nice weather up top with enough of a breeze to blow the smoke away from us. It was beautiful up there. We could see something like 5 over volcanoes as well as the lake and puncon. Plus looking into the volcano was pretty neat the sides had  different colors from all of the minerals in the earth. I really wanted to see some lava bubbling but no such luck. We had our snack lunch up there then suited up to head down. We put on some extra butt layers because we were sliding down on the snow. It was like sledding on our butts, we did get little plastic but dishes to sit on but were only allowed to use them on the slow/not steep parts. It was pretty bumpy but fun. One section was like loushing, I got bashed against the ice wall pretty hard but it was good fun. We walked all the way back to the base where the cars were and the lower part was all screet I think that's what they call it, super loose rock you have to sort of hop/ski down. It was pretty fun was well. When we got back to town we turned in our gear and then went and had drinks in their deck with the guides. Phillippe had introduced me to one of the guides the day before because he had known Sara as well so I talked to him a bit, super nice guy has climbed that volcano over 1200 times freaking crazy.(Sara was the girl who told me to come to pubcon in the first place)
Anyway I went back to to the hostel made dinner and hung out with the girls all night. 

Feb 2 
So today I started my kayak course. My instructor was a girl, Fran, from England. She was a really good teacher I was amazed the amount of knowledge she had to offer and actually what goes into kayaking. So anyway for the morning session we went to the lake to practice drills and doing the roll, which I thought I pretty much had down but Fran told me my technique wasn't the best so we had to try and change what I had learned which was a little difficult. It's a super weird skill people say they can do it well some days and others not at all. Very odd. 
So we did lots of paddling and drills the got out and had lunch which was pretty good. Avos (avacados) must be super cheap because there in everything which is awesome.  After lunch we headed to the river which was class one and 2. We did a number of drills and Eddie practice because apparently eddies lines, the edge of eddies, are some of the most dangerous areas or at least the most likely to flip over area. It was a slow river with big pools so not the most fun but you have to practice on small stuff before you go big. Haha. I picked Frans brain all about kayaking and situations. She is very knowledgable.  
When we got back went back to my hostel made some chicken stir fry with rice, garlic, green beans and some packet that your meant to use for guacamole haha it was decent. I hung out with the girls again at night they keep talking about going dancing but luckily never do however, we were still up till 3 or so. Haha Denisse and Walley, the twins, know alot of english and I try my terrible spanish with them. Anita doenst know English and she speaks Spanish so fast I cannt understand her at all haha. Anyway it's been good times. 

Feb 3
So I had my second kayak lesson today I think I forgot to mention that the weather has been crap cloudy and raining off and on yesterday and today. Anyway we headed to the river the same section to do more Eddie in and out practice and just getting a feel for the currents. It's not like the ocean where generally the currents come from one direction they can come from almost anywhere. We stop for the massive lunch again on the side of the river. It sucked though because it was freezing I brought my suit today and i was still a bit cold. There was another guy taking a day lesson but he was with another guide an Aussie, jack. So any way we ate the huge meal and hopped right back on the river bad idea. Jack and his client were in a double kayak they do that so the client gets a feel of how to lean on your edges and what not. I thought about it but wanted to try myself. So we past the first rapid much bigger than anything I have done so it was intense paddling through. There was a big Eddie on the side we slipped into. We tried ferrying across the river it's much harder when it's moving that fast. I flipped over onetime but managed to do the roll back over, nearly having my food repeat on me. Then paddled back up stream a bit because I told Fran I wanted to try surfing a rapid. The first 2 passes i sort of slipped bye then the third time I got flipped over. I tried doing the roll back over but my lunch repeated on me and threw up a bit when I made my attempts I couldn't pull it off so I ended up pulling the skirt and swimming. Fran came over and helped me to the side. We drained the kayak out and continued on. The rapid were pretty solid for me. Fran and jack were both saying I was doing very well, I was a natural. I only flipped one other tine and that was because I cannt read the rapids that well and I was trying to follow Fran but one point I was a bit further right and I went over a rock and that tossed me. I tried recovering again but I couldn't Fran and jack came over jack took the kayak. 
Jack and his client flipped playing around in that first rapid. Jack took a bit but managed to get it up right again.  Must be really hard to flip with an extra person. 
Fran was super stoked I made all the other rapids and the hardest one too a 3+. We made it past the last rapid and were talking when Fran looked back and saw jack on top of his flipped over kayak. So I eddied off to one side and she went to help them. Apparently jack had wacked his head really hard and got a concussion. He had no idea where he was for a few minutes apparently. So they sat on the far side of the river for a bit then we paddled to the bridge to get out, luckily we were very near and apparently the end was flat. It was weird though they were already past the rapids and just in fast moving roller waves must have got lazy or caught an edge. He said he hit his head as they were flipping over. He then tried to do the roll back over but was all messed up under water so he pulled out and swam, luckily he had a helmet on and didn't totally black out under the water. Anyway we got out, called the transport and dropped jack and Fran off at the hospital. I'm sure he was fine he was cracking jokes and had is balance so. We got dropped back at the shop. I paid up and headed back to the hostel. I had some left overs and hung out with the girls all night. 

Feb 4
So today I hung out with Walley and Denisse. We had a very late morning then just headed to the lake to lie on the beach. Then we went to get some food we went to that burger place. We hung out a long time just chatting and what not. Then we met up with Annita, we walked around town Walley wanted to shop a bit then her and Annita went to the casino. Denisse and I walked around a bit more. We met back up and headed back to the hostel. The girls had bought some stuff to make guacamole but they were going to use some packet with the avos so I told them to go buy a few other things and I'd make it from scratch. Unfortunately chillianos don't like spicy stuff so I though it was bland n could have used another onion but they all love it. Alvero and his wife were here and they had some as well Alvero joked about getting me and extended visa haha. After we ate we hung out all night talking and playing cards. 

Feb 5
So today we all headed to huli-huli a ecological reserve. All 6 of us squeezed into Alvero's and caroliona car, Denisse sat on my lap the entire way which was about 2 hours. When we got there we had lunch we started with empanadas then Alvero and I split an asado which was delicious. Then we did a short walk to see some waterfalls. After that we went to check out these amazing hotels one looked like a mountain and the other like a tree they were so neat looking, we were lucky to get a little tour of the place. I think mom and dad should come here. There's tons of stuff to do around here too. Before we headed home we stopped to have some drinks. The drive home was brutal took at least 3 hours and we took a dirt road, which sucked. But when we got home Phillippe heated up the asado for us. It was delicious a big mix of meats cooked together. After dinner which was about midnight we headed out to a bar till it closed around 4 am. It was decent fun but still not a bar fan. 

Feb 6 I think I have my days mixed up
So today was a super lazy day. Anyway we had lunch at the hostle Walley and Carolina made some salad and veggies for lunch it was delicious. Then we headed to town where the girls and I rented a suri and biked around town for s bit. Then we all headed to Los posonies, the thermals. It was very nice the water was super hot but manageable for a bit. They had a number of natural stone pools so it was very pretty plus the surroundings were mountains and trees and it was a crystal clear sky. When we got home we were all spent so we nicked off to bed. 

Feb 8 (I mucked something up with dates.)
We had another lazy morning. Then the girls and I headed to town to have some lunch. I had caswela a local dish. It was like a stew, it was pretty good.  Denisse had pastel de choco some sorft of mash corn dish. It was pretty good as well. After lunch we walked around a bit then headed back to the hostel to get shoes because we book a zipline and swing tour for the avo. 
The zip lines were pretty fun just Denisse and I went but Walley and Annota did the swing. Denisse and her sis went first. Then Annita and I. It was pretty fun but not super high Anita was 
Super scared it was funny. 
When we got back Walley made us dinner some white past with cream sauce. It was really pretty good. After dinner we hung around the tv. 

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