Friday, October 26, 2007 5 Star Cabins and our tour of Pucon

Friday, October 26, 2007 5 Star Cabins and our tour of Pucon

We got to Pucon around 7 am and the bus took us to our Cabañas, or Cabins. Cabañas are really popular to stay in and usually they are pretty basic. But our Cabañas were seriously 5 Star! The place, called El Dorado, is incredible. It has a pool, hot tub, sauna, steam room, soccer field, play ground, and a Hall that looks like a castle, surrounded by a mote/stream with black necked swans. The cabins were beautiful wood cabins with a full kitchen with tile floors, a huge dining room table, fancy bathrooms, leather furniture and a huge flat screen TV. We had about an hour to get settled then went to the Hall/Castle for breakfast. Of course breakfast was delicious with white linens and juice in wine glasses. After breakfast we had a little introduction to the activities we could do from a good looking guy who works at the tour office Politur. At 11 we left for our tour of Pucon and the surrounding region.

Pucon is a beautiful, lush mountain city that looks ridiculously like it was plucked right out of Colorado. It isn’t very big, I think about 40,000 permant residents, but it is a huge tourist spot because of all the stuff to do. Volcan (Volcano) Villarica is about 20 minutes away and looms over the city like a smoking snow capped giant. It is the most active volcano in all of South America and smoke pours out the top all day long. Unfortunately it is often rainy in Pucon (actually in all of southern Chile) and all day Friday was pretty cloudy.

To be honest I don’t remember many details about the places we went because I was having too much fun hanging out and goofing off with everyone in the group. But I know first we went to a beautiful waterfall where I gave Matt my camera to take artistic pictures. Then we went to a lake that sits next to the volcano. Then we went to another waterfall and hiked up it. There were three different levels and we hiked about 20 minutes to get to the top level. After the hike we had a sack lunch, then headed out to the Thermals, or hot springs. We spent the afternoon lounging in the natural hot spring pools while it sprinkled. The thermals sit along a beautiful fast flowing river and at one point a bunch of us went and jumped in. We only lasted about .2 seconds because it was incredibly freezing and we ran back to the warmth of the hot springs. We also tried making a whirlpool in one of the smaller pools but it didn’t work too well. People kept smacking their feet on the rocks and after a while we gave up.

Once everyone was nice and pruny we had to head back to Pucon. We had a little bit of time to clean up before we left for dinner and we a bunch of us decided to climb the volcano the next day. It cost almost $80 but how often do you get the chance to climb an active snow capped volcano? Plus it comes with one guide every 6 people and all the equipment you would need. I didn’t understand why we needed so much equipment till we got there, but now I understand. Before dinner everyone going on the volcano went and got their boots fitted and all the equipment ready.

We had dinner at a restaurant in Villarica, the city on the other side of the lake. At the end of dinner we had live music by two Chilean men. After they played for a while Hector, our director played then we convinced Courtney to play. Sallyann sang with her and they played a couple well known US songs. I was incredibly impressed and all the gringos loved it. Unfortunately the Chileans didn’t know the songs since they weren’t from the 80s, so they all looked a little bored. After Courtney played the two Chileans started playing again and by that point we were all really tired and ready to get back. We wanted to go to bed early since we had to leave for the volcano at 6:30 am. Finally Hector announced that we had to go and we eagerly got back on the bus.

There were 7 girls staying in our 3 room cabin. I was tired and a little irritable so after Natalie found two huge cockroaches on her bag and flipped the crap out, I couldn’t take it. Luckily Courtney didn’t mind them so she got them out of the cabin but everyone was shrieking and making it into a huge deal. There was just way too much girliness, and as soon as we could, Courtney and I just went to bed.