Pucón, Chile

Today’s post officially marks our halfway point of the trip. It’s hard to imagine we made it halfway, but it also feels like we have been traveling for a lifetime. There’s so many birds chirping outside. Our new hostel is right on the lake – Lake Villarrica. Although, we are not staying in Villarrica, but rather a city across the water, Pucón. This city is totally adorable. It has the vibes of Winter Park (according to Mer), mixed with a port city of sorts. It’s quite chilly, but all of our clothes are being washed tonight so we will be staying indoors for a bit.

As I said, our hostel, Chili Kiwi Hostel, overlooks the lake. This means we had to walk all through town to get there from the bus stop. On our walk we saw so many shops and restaurants. Pucón is the adventure capital of Chile, apparently. We may buy some gear here for Patagonia, but we will have to see price-wise. Weather permitting, I’ll keep y’all in the loop on what activities we get up to.

If you recall, the style of these entries has been super random, so this again will be different. xoxo

Day 1: Today was a lovely day. We had a casual wake up when you want plan, which ended up being around nine in the morning. We then walked to 297 Cafe Bistro, but in the end we never found it. Truly strange. We headed back towards the hostel and stopped in at Trawen. I got an egg, avo, lettuce, hummus bfast sammy on super lovely bread. It was massive. We dropped some toast leftovers off at Chili Kiwi before walking to Aventura for a hydrospeed adventure. This is an activity where you hold onto a thick boogie board from within the board, your arms are in it and head is above it and then your body dangles behind you as you ride down the river rapids. Looks like the front of a kayak but foam. This was such a fun experience and also super hilarious. Would go again. We had a group of five – Mer, Me, Max, our guide and the safety guide that trailed us in a raft and took videos of us looking like fools. Good group. I did bang my ankle on a rock and potentially popped a blood vessel. Weird and puffy little knob now. No pain no gain! Jk all is well don’t worry. We were in full wet suits, forgot to mention that. The landscape is so pretty. The river is also much wider than the Arkansas river I rafted in earlier this summer. We made it back home, showered, and hit up the grocery store, then returned to make some sandwiches. That evening we made dinner with our roommate, Benita. Fun! It was a wholesome time. Made a chicken, couscous, veggie bowl. We also found a good hot sauce at the store that I have been putting on everything.

Day 2: Today we woke up early for a hike in Parque Nacional Huerquehua. We caught the 08:30 bus for eight pesos and it took about an hour to get to the park. It was a cloudy day, but we said hi to the sun on a few blessed occasions. The bus home wasn’t until 17:10, so we had plenty of time to explore. Only one hike was open this early in the season. Sendero Los Lagos. It took about an hour to get to the actual park entrance. After that the hike in and out took around four hours. We stopped for a few snack breaks along the way. Yes, it was cloudy, but the views on the way up to the lakes were different on the way down, which was a nice treat. Like getting two hikes in one. We saw some cascadas on the way, which were honestly pretty big! Chilly too from the cold mist that hit us! The hiking itself was hilarious and difficult. Multiple people, myself included, took spills. We had a group of five for the day: Meredith, Rebecca, Benita, Tony, and myself. Tony did the hike a month ago, so he was our leader. Benita met Tony and Becca the day before and they asked to tag along. Tony was trying to get a PR up the mountain. Not actually, but it felt like it. Rebecca and Benita were fun and we are going to try and meet up with them again in Argentina. Should be a good time! Now, why was the hike funny and hard? It was so damn muddy, that’s why. Slipping, sloshing, sliding around we all were. Plus, there was snow to contend with, and going up and down posed their own challenges/required different approaches. The hike is a loop, but we couldn’t do a full circuit because an area was closed off due to snow and fallen trees. We made it work and returned to the cafe successfully with an hour and a half to spare before the bus. There was a cafe at the beginning of the trail with an area fenced off and full of super fluffy cows, lots of random pets wandering about, and some houses and such. A calf had escaped the fence and everyone was just mooing at it. The baby was now safely back on the other side of the fence. We got snacks (1000 peso empanada de pino) and warmed up a bit before walking back to the bus stop. When we got home I noted that I had walked 26,662 steps in total and we were pretty exhausted by the time dinner rolled around. We had some soup/ramen/wine at Chili Kiwi and then called it a night.

Day 3: Rainy day. Reading and writing to be had. We did some browsing down the main street and I took notes of prices. There’s lots of outdoor stores, cafes, tour shops, and some random places like a book shop, party supply/stationary store (I got a new journal!) and some vintage stores with some dope shit. One had a ski onesie with a Copper Mountain Day pass still attached to it from 1996! We made mushroom spinach pasta with Benita for dinner and had a nice meal in the main house watching the sunset. I have sooooo many sunset/sunrise pics of the lake. We wanted ice cream but all the shops were closed so instead we went to Cafe de la P and I got some random apple dessert with ice cream but it was SO sweet we cracked up. They said it couldn’t be made without the toffee! Funny experience.

Day 4: Mer and Benita went on a horseback riding adventure, but I did not join them due to my allergies. Instead, I went kayaking on the lake with Luana, one of the volunteers at the hostel. We had a grand time. It was a sunny cloudless day, and the volcano even showed it’s face! Cutie pie! I also strolled around the town and got some fresh baked bread. Luana told me she used to teach cooking to kids and that she wants to make a meal together before we leave.

Day 5: Today was a nice day of, you guessed it, relaxation. Reading and writing. Also, we got the news that our reservation for the O-Circuit is all messed up but no one will answer me! Frustrating. That evening we walked to the farther away grocery store and it looked like a Target. We got stuff to make Tofu bulgogi but they didn’t have tofu so we made it with ground chicken and without gochujang. Not quite the same but it still was good. Luana enjoyed it so that made me happy. Everyone and their dog was making dinner at the hostel that night and it was a madhouse. We made it in our cold disconnected kitchen though without any interruption. I say our because no one else seems to use it since the fireplace doesn’t work.

Day 6: Get ready for a hot one, we went to the Geothermal baths today! Seventeen pools of varying temperatures. That morning I planned to walk to the bakery to get bread for my sandwich of the day and breakfast but these plans got absolutely wrecked. Just kidding, but also not kidding. The bakery was closed for a holiday? Who knew they celebrated hinakage day down here! On the way back I stopped at Trawen for some tea, an accidental soup, and a GIANT empanada. The soup was also huge if we are being honest. I ate half the empanada and was still stuffed on my walk back. Shortly after my return, we got in a red van and made the 1.5 hour drive to the geometricas. The last half hour of the drive had Mer and I hanging on for dear life trying not to throw up. Once we arrived and got a little more grounded, we embraced this stunning place. It was beautiful. Everything was vibrant and green. It was like we were nestled in a small canyon, but between rocks covered in moss and leaves and plants. Steam floats all around you as you walk along a river of faded red wooden railed paths. Pools, bathrooms, and changing areas line your path on either side. A five minute walk takes you to the end of the road where you’re met with a small waterfall. We hopped in various pools at the start: 37°, 44°, 39°, 41°, etc. We got to be two very toasty girls. There’s some pools around 6° you could hop from cold to hot to cold to hot, but it was too chilly for us. We got back to the hostel and looked up the conversion and realized we were COOKING in some of those baths! So funny.

Day 7: Last day in Pucón so we packed our stuff up and moved out of our room, but we put our stuff into storage for the day at Chili Kiwi and could still hang out there so that was a non issue. We walked to the bakery I have been trying to go to, Le Lutin Panaderia and we were finally able to get an almond croissant. On the way back I got a second sleeve of cookies from De la P for the road! Shout out De la P! We did some reading all day and then around 17:00 we started sous cheffin for Luana with David and Luana’s male friend 😉 We made Brazilian stroganoff and it took about an hour, but frying the potatoes took two hours so then we were stressed but not actually! Delicious meal. Cute and fun family dinner with the hostel staff. Then we raced (speed walked) to the bus. Made it! Got to Santiago at 06:30 and then hopped on another bus to Pichilemu.

I forgot to mention that the main hike on the volcano was closed due to it being active, and then some of the other bigger hikes were expensive so we opted out. Gives us something to do next time though, am I right?

Have a good week, and we sure to check out my pics on instagram!