Pucón Party Town

Monday 11th April we headed south on the overnight bus arriving in the early hours of Tuesday morning to Pucón (in the Chilean Lake District) which sits at the foot of a large currently very active volcano. We were picked up by Brad (the owner of the hostel who was from Zimbabwe). After 10 minutes in the log cabin in came Brett the guy we shared a room with in Santiago. He met up with three other people (Janet from Northern Ireland, Eric and Mike (both from Canada)).

There were two other girls there Jade from Oz and Or (yes thats her name I am not making it up) from Israel. Brad´s in laws lived next door and they had bought a goat for the father in laws birthday....we thought it was their pet but soon found out it was to be slaughtered for the father in law´s birthday feast. Later on that day we went out for look a whilst the father in law gutted the goat. I left soon after but Chris watched them cut the head off (see the pictures!!).

We wandered into town and it looks like a small town American movie set from Gremlins, Back To The Future or Twin Peaks apart from having a large volcano looming above - it wasn´t how we imagined Chile to look.

Or had told us that she couldn´t climb the volcano that day as it was too windy and that it was also off for the next day. So despite our good intentions not to have a drink we all clubbed in and bought wine and beer for a quiet night in. The party lasted well into the wee hours of the morning and we were entertained by Vivien (Brad´s wife) playing the guitar and singing along with Honey her sister....they were fantastic...we sang, danced and all of us had a great time.

On Wednesday we all got up a bit late....Jade had left and Brad said he would take us out to a waterfall and a lake and we were all also invited to his father in laws birthday BBQ that night. All seven of us got into the back of his jeep. Chris, Janet and I got to sit in the boot with a bean bag what a laugh...the waterfall was really nice and the water further up had such deep shades of blue. The lake was absolutely beautiful and had a lovely sandy beach....being the mad Celts that we are Chris, Janet and I got our shoes off and went in for a paddle....the water was soo clear and warm.

We headed back for the BBQ and went into Vivien´s family´s house. The food was really good and they saved the best ´til last - the goat. As we were all going up the Volcano the next day we decided we couldn´t have too heavy a night. Vivien´s family were all lovely. Her father got extremely sentimental and was pleased that the ´gringo´s´ had come to his birthday. I made friends with Coti (Viv´s sister) who was 6. She was some character we got a couple of good pictures of her in a strop, but we had a laugh dancing, singing and generally giving her tickles....yes the tickle monster is still alive and kicking....I need to make sure that I don´t lose my touch for coming back home!! We went to bed around 1 for an 'early' night.

Thursday....up early for the Volcán Villarrica. Neither of us seemed to get much sleep due to dogs barking but we still managed to get up early for our trip. The first part of the trip was going up on a chair lift...our first time (Boy does Chris know how to treat a girl!!). We then started to climb and it was really tough going when we got to the snow part....we had pick axes to assist for when we fell (a little bit scary) and Chris also had to use Crampons. We could hear the rumble of the volcano several times as we went up (he obviously didn´t like the look of our lovely yellow jackets!). When we got near the top (after 4 hours of hard slog) we were told that we would not be taken to the crater of the volcano as it was becoming too dangerous (over the last couple of weeks there has been a huge increase in the volcano´s activity)....So after some eats we headed back down....This was the best laugh - we had to slide down the side of the volcano using a pick axe to slow us down....well it was steep and whilst I didn´t really fancy doing it, the other option to walk down seemed less appealing. It was GREAT!! That is until at the last slide which was really steep Chris jarred his foot on a rock....he had to hobble all the way to the minibus. (Hoppa long is doing fine.)

Back at the Hostel we decided to head out to the Therma Springs later on that evening. We stopped off for nibbles and drinks and arrived there around 9.30pm.
The sky was clear and you could see lots of stars. Into the springs we went and what can I say after several hours our achy bones and muscles were healed or could that have been due to the drink?? It was such an amazing place being able to sit in a natural hot spring, gazing to the stars and having a good laugh with all the gang. Even better than this it was Eric´s (one of the Canadian´s) birthday - what a place to have it! We left at 1.30 am and got back to Pucón around 2.30 when Vivien and Brad managed persuade the owner of a burger joint (which was just closing) to make us all burgers. Boy were they good!!

On Friday the boys had an afternoon of pleasure to themselves - well they went fishing (that´s what I was told anyway!!). They only managed to catch a little tiddler and then had to throw it back. But they said they had a great BBQ and a few beers sitting beside a beautiful river with spectacular scenery which look as though it was a backdrop from Lord of the Rings. The girls just generally chilled out and had a laugh....we went to the lake to watch the sunset - the sky was a lovely colour of orange - it was absolutely beautiful. That evening we all had Spag Bol and Chris & I decided to have a quiet night in and watch some rubbish tv.

We chilled for most of the next day and went out into town at night with the gang, before heading back to the hostel to another riotous party!!

Last day in Pucón we both managed to lift our weary heads to say ´Cheerio´to most of the gang who were leaving. Brad cooked us a roast dinner (which was almost as good as Chris´ Dad´s) and we wandered down to lake to sit in the sun and watch the sunset. The volcano has also been smoking non stop for at least two hours....so maybe it´s time we leave before another disaster strikes.

Both of us feel that this is the most welcome we have been made by any hotel/hostel. Brad has been extremely helpful in driving us around and taking us places that would have been difficult to reach without a car. Nothing was too much trouble for him and Vivien and they joined in with everything we did over the week.
So if you are ever in Chile - make sure you go to Pucón and stay in the Monkey Puzzle Hostel.