Santiago and Pucon Adventures

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Hello All,

So I have arrived from Buenos Aires in Santiago, Chile. As soon as I exited the main doors the taxi drivers were all over me. So I thought I would do the smart thing and go to the tourist office like a good tourist that I am. I went there and she did not know anything about how to get to town and told me to take the taxi with the taxi guy stalking me and standing right next to me. I thought it was quite odd but hey...what can I do. So I took their service to town and they dropped me off at the hostel La Casa Roja.

They mixed up my bed so I had to wait a couple of hours before it was clear that I actually will not be sleeping on the floor. Well, maybe I am exagerating a bit. I thought I was going to go out on friday however since I stayed up all night in Buenos Aires, things did not go according to party plan. I went to bed at around 4:30 and slept until 7pm. So I thought...hey, it is still early and I will sleep for a couple of hours and then go out. Next thing I know, I wake up and it is 4:45am and realize that my chances of going out are extremely slim so I continued the sleeping marathon until 9am.

That morning I ran into some people from the Czech Republic so I spent a couple of days hanging out with them. They were quite friendly actually. Then I went to book my bus to Pucon. I was beginning to like Santiago more for some reason. It just seems so easy going.

I, however, have missed the bus by about 5 minutes so mini panic set in. There was a useless lady who told me that she cannot do anything. Then the hero came along. Some guy who works there so he said not to worry and put me on the bus to Temuco and then I had to transfer from there to Pucon. So it was all good again. The bus I got was semi-cama and it was a royal treatment indeed. The seat reclined down to almost sleeping position and the seats were wide and comfortable with huge leg room. They also brought me some small snacks and pop so I was satisfied.

I got to Pucon early in the morning so I went to a hostel recommened by Lonely Planet which was called Hostal Donde German. I got the room for a couple of nights. The hostal was cabin style so it was quite cozy. At around noon, I went to the travel agency and tried to book some tours but all required at least 2 people and since I just got there I did not know anyone my options were limited to almost nothing. I managed to get a horseback riding tour for that day. I met 3 girls from New York on that little endevour and it was very nice. The scenery is quite amazing in Pucon. We crossed some rivers and the terrain varied quite a bit in those 3 hours. By the way, I have trotting simply because you have the most chance of crushing your so called nuts from bouncing up and down so much. Galloping turned out to be quite fun because you are just going fast like a madman and loving it. My horse, was called Polka, which means marble. They named him that because his ass supposedly looks like a marble ball. Whatever. My horse was bullying the others which was awesome. I command respect people! I managed to grab some blackberries while the horse was passing by the bushes. I cannot believe just how many blackberries Pucon has.

The next day, I was eager to go to Volcan Villarica, which is an active volcano and my whole reason for coming to Pucon. However, it was raining so it was canceled. I thought that I will just wait it out. Four days later, I gave up. I was very thrilled about that. I could have been wearing a gas mask people! how cool would that be. And also seeing the lava flow. Oh well.

After 2 days, I went for a hike with 2 british guys. The hike was absolutely harsh since it started raining and it was already 5pm when we started. One brit was some kind of a fitness freak so we were what I thought almost running up the damn hill for about 30 minutes straight. The guy was a freaking robot, which was pissing me off because I had to keep up. The trail was not exactly user friendly either since there was a small creek running through the walk path. After half an hour of sprinting we gave up because the trail turned impossible to walk on and my jeans were soaking wet. Then we tried for the Los Pozones hot springs which were very famous according to Chileans. It was already dark and the road was shite, so our little rent a car was becoming useless. Next thing you know there were trees in on the road so bypassing them without getting stuck was almost fun. We passed by the hot springs because there was no lights on and then gave up as the trail was beginning to look like something from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We went back to the hostel.

In the mean time, I met the 2 girls from switzerland and denmark. They put them in my dorm in the hostel so it was a small reunion again. I convinced them that there is no point in staying in Pucon so we made one more attempt to go there with the travel agency. This time it was a success. The hot springs were really nice. There were 6 stone pools with different temperatures. It says no beer, but what is a man supposed to do. Me and another polish guy took control of that situation by buying 2 six packs. When we came back I checked out and argued a bit with the crew since I did not want to pay our negotiated price since we had no electricity for 2 days. Ya, that was also fun but I am trying to keep this blog shorter than a novel. That evening we headed back to Santiago.

Since I had two more days there, I definitely wanted to party. I went to see the cable car that takes you to the top of the hill with the polish guy. We sat around there and had a beer at the top. It was really relaxing. That is what I came to conclude about Santiago. You can just waste the days away doing absolutely nothing and it feels good to do nothing. Back to the topic. We managed to catch the gondola right at sunset so i was really nice. We also took the little elevator/trolley that takes you up to the hills. The gondola takes you down to the other side.

In the evening, we saw a young couple dancing tango in the streets and they were quite good since they played around with traffic while they danced and it was amusing to watch them. Then we went to eat and I decided to try an ostrich. why not? it was good but then again I eat just about anything. I also absolutely love Chilean wine. so delicious.

At night, we met some chileans and they said they will take us out so we went with them. We enter this club and what do I see...A TRANSVESTITE BARTENDER SERVING DRINKS. Yes, it was a gay bar and we hated it. This was my famous night in Santiago. I did not hook up with any boys and the bartender did not create butterflies in my stomach either. We left that place and tried to go somewhere else but it was too late and everything was closing down. The next night the crew was going for take 2 for a good night out but I had to skip and gave up at 1am in the pub since I had a flight to La Paz, Bolivia at 7am and the cabby was picking me up at 4am. That about sums it up.

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Photos

Santiago
On the way to the view point

Santiago
At the top of the view point

Santiago - Top of the Hill
On the way to the cable car

Santiago
The Sunset

Pucon
Horse Back Riding Environment

Pucon
Volcan Villarica - the active volcano I wanted to climb

Pucon
Los Pozones - The famous hot springs with stone pools

Comments

[Admirer]

Who are the hot amigos in the hot spring ?
Thats it really...dont have any other questions.