Pucón or Lake Tahoe...Where Am I?

I arrived in Pucón at 8 a.m. and was a little out of it. The night buses can be rough even if you sleep most of the way. I found Hospedaje Victor where the bed was amazing..ahh!!!

I wandered around town and walked to Lago Villarrica. This lake and surrounding town is a complete reminder of Lake Tahoe, almost (again, almost) better because there were less tourists. I, immediately, fell in love. I am going to move here (just kidding...well kind of...). This place is so peaceful and wonderous. From the town, you can see snow covered volcanos and mountains. I decided to book my tour for the next day. The main reason I went to Pucón was to hike Volcán Villarrica (as if I needed more hiking after Machu Picchu). When I was in the tour office, I ran into Shiobhan who I had dinner with in Santiago. She had just hiked the Volcán and gave me the run down on the day. I hit the mercado to buy my breakfast and lunch for the next day. I saw Jen´s favorite ceral in the store...Zucaritas, and Choco Zucaritas...ha ha Jen, I laugh because it took me back to Costa Rica! I met Shiobhan for a drink that night and then it was off to bed for me, I had a big day ahead of me!

The big hike was to take about 5 hours to get to the top of the snow covered volcán and about 3 hours to get down. Oh boy, here we go! I met my tour group at 7 a.m. and we were quickely outfitted for the hike - backpacks, pants, jacket, pick and boots. We were a small group. It was me, Steve and his daughter Jennifer from Austrailia and our guide, Pedro. We began our trek in the snow...step, step, step...whoa, this was going to be hard. It was pretty steep so, we had to zig zag up the mountain and walking in those heavy boots was not easy. I fell a couple of times and had to catch myself with my pick so I didn´t go sliding back down the mountain. We carried cramp on clamps in our backpacks, just in case the snow was too icy. It turned out, we did not need them. I brought a ton of food and ate it all! I think I was exerting a ton of energy with each step. Jennifer didn´t think she could make it up the hill so she turned back about 1/2 way and the 3 of us continued on. After about 4 1/2 hours, we made it to the top! The views were marvelous and I loved that you could see all of the surrounding lakes. Pucón is in the Lakes District of Chile. There are many many lakes similar to Lago Villarrica in the area. Can you imagine - a ton of mini Lake Tahoes all in the same area? Again, I am in love!

Coming down the mountain was the funnest part of the hike. We strapped on (sounds, well...anyway...) "sliding pants" and slid most of the way down the mountain. We used our pick as a brake. I was cracking up and had so much fun. I felt like such a kid. I crashed at one point and just kept going. Hilarious. We made pretty good time getting back down and were back by 4 p.m.

I received some great tips for my Australia trip from Aussie Steve and absolutely loved my experience in Pucón. After the hike, I was spent and headed to the bus station where I took another overnight, semi-cama bus to the ocean. I was off to Valparaiso.