Pucon – Tourists, a Lake and a Volcano

Pucon is a major tourist town in Chile. The small town is loaded with restaurants, cafes, outdoor adventure tour companies and healthy dose of cold weather equipment shops. The tourist masses are a mix of foreigners and locals, all milling
around a beautiful town that sits by a lake and has a white snow caked volcano looming nearby. This is also the mecca for canyoning, rafting and all things outdoor in the country.

When I arrived I sat at the terminal looking at the town map, deciding where to stay. It was the first time in Chile that hostal operators scouted out the bus
terminal, and I was greeted by Carlo and Hugo who ran a backpackers around the
corner. Happy with the prices I dropped my gear off their hostal and ventured
into the small town to explore.

Also staying in the hostal were a few other backpackers. It’s a funny thing that you meet so many people in these travels, have long conversations with them, but rarely do you know their names. There was the guy from Holland who had just finished a group tour, and he was travelling for the first time by himself. I gave the guy some tips and he headed out the next day. There was also the German and Puerto Rican students that had been doing an exchange programme in Santiago and this was their time off. I even had a few beers with the Puerto Rican guy, talked politics and learned some things about Puerto Rico, without ever asking his name. And to honest it never comes up, and you just bid your farewells at the end of the day and move onto the next town to meet new people.

Two of the guys had attempted the volcano climb and had to be turned back part the way up as the snow had become ice and too dangerous to climb. They were even armed with pick axes in case they fell as two tourists had slid to their death down the slippery ice a few years before. Part of me still wanted to try it, but I
decided against it after they told me how they had to argue with the tour operator to get a discount for not making it to the summit. I’d heard stories
like this before, and I really didn’t fancy climbing up a volcano that was caked
with ice.

For the most part I spent my time idling by the lake enjoying the sun shine in the cold weather. We had three straight days of sun in Pucon, however that was not to last, and the forth day promised rain. In those clear blue sky days I enjoyed
some great trout and salmon, although the prices were outrageous much like back in San Pedro. I even began to get a little worried about how much over budget I had been getting, but if you can’t enjoy yourself while on holiday then what’s the point of being here.

The morning of day four was overcast as predicted and the threat of rain was obvious, so I headed to the bus terminal with Hugo, who decided to tag along to kill some time. Waiting with Hugo he told me that he used to be a ski instructor before a motorbike accident messed up his leg and he spent a year in hospital. It was a sad tale and the guy was clearly unhappy with what life had dealt him. It also went a long way to explain why he smoked a lot of pot too; if there was ever an argument for marijuana legalisation Hugo would be the poster child.

A three hour bus journey through rain, the heavens finally parted and revealed blue sky. It’s nice to arrive in a new city in good weather, something I hadn’t
appreciated until now as I’ve had a good run of excellent weather in South
America. I had arrived in Valdivia, and I was very curious about sea lions.

Valdivia – SEA LIONS!! 

Staying in Chile continued to be an expensive exercise. The hostal wasn’t cheap by the other countries I’d visited standards, but I had come to expect it and just
accept this fact. However the food and coffee continued to be better in south
and there’s one awesome attraction in Valdivia that drew less tourists than I
would have expected – sea lions!!

At first I thought they were just statues. Valdivia sits on the banks of two rivers that almost encircle the town, and on the river are platforms that didn’t appear to
serve any purpose than to house large statues of marine wildlife. This proved to be wrong as I steadily approached the fish markets and discovered giant sea lions chilling out in the river, basking calming obviously drawn to the scent of fresh fishy produce.

These things are huge. I mean they could crush several men just by sitting on them. I’d only ever seen sea lions at the zoo, enclosed away for their and our safety. But in Valdivia they’re a normal part of daily life, lazily soaking up the sun on the man made platforms in bemusement of the small groups of tourists watching them and snapping photos. So used to this, in appeared, that they almost took pride on their wallowing on the piers. More than a couple of times did they choose to let out a guttural roar as children jumped away squealing.

I swear I could have sat watching these ginormous beasts all day, and looking at their faces I understood why they were called lions – they really do have an almost feline appearance. But the weather was undecided if it should stay sunny or throw some little rain our way, so I ended up trying to visit the local museum
which was sadly closed. My continuation of the absence of luck when visiting a
museum in Chile was well alive with me in Valdivia.

After spending the night in an amazing bar, decked out with old school movie posters and a kite hung from the ceiling that fluttered from the breeze of a nearby fan, I left Valdivia and made my way to Puerto Varas. I had originally planned on going to Puerto Montt, the city just south of it, but after being told back in Pucon that Puerto Montt smelled like fish and was expensive, I took their
recommendation to go to Puerto Varas instead.

Puerto Varas – Germany in Chile

The town of Puerto Varas was settled by the Germans and it really shows. Everything here screams German influence, from the homes, the church and even the frilly lace curtains. I could have sworn the lady that ran the hostal was more German than South American, she had that hard stern demeanour that comes from only the finest German engineering.

I was extremely glad that I decided to come here rather than Puerto Montt. I even met a Mexico traveller that had just come of Puerto Montt and warned me not to go there – he confirmed that it stank of fish and there was nothing to do there. The locals even called it Muerto Montt – Dead Montt. That pretty much summed up a good reason not to visit!

Still, I needed to make a decision. From Puerto Montt was a three day ferry ride to
Puerto Natales in southern Patagonia. I really wanted to started Argentina as far south as possible, but after looking at the temperature in Puerto Natales – a freezing 1 degree – I decided that I didn’t want to be that cold despite the fact I was kinda getting used to the cold weather and it wasn’t bothering me so much anymore.

The Mexican guy had mentioned that he and his girlfriend had come from Bariloche in Argentina via a bus, but there was a bus and two ferry rides you can also take that was supposed to be awesome and he regretted that he hadn’t taken that journey instead. At that moment I was I revolved to head to Argentina from Puerto Varas and wanted to do it this way.

That plan was quickly buried and stomped on when I discovered it was only a surprising $260USD for the 12 hour journey. If it would to take a couple of days I could have justified that kind of money, but for half a days travel it was outrageous. So I accepted defeat on that plan and bought a bus ticket to Bariloche, without quite knowing anything about Bariloche, and Argentina in general, at this stage.

After spending the day walking by the amazing lake, that is framed by two stunning white capped volcanos, I drank a few of Kunstman beers that night in the faux Irish bar and said my goodbyes to Chile. It’s a strange country, a place where people talk exceedingly fast, where bland food and hot dogs reign the food scene, where art and poetry are adored, and the Lakes District is one of the
most beautiful places on Earth.

But now, it was time for Argentina.