Pachamam Bus - Lakes District Route - Day 2 and 3

Trip Start Jan 10, 2008
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24
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Trip End Ongoing


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Where I stayed
La Pousada del Embrujo
(Pucon hotels)

Flag of Chile  ,
Saturday, March 15, 2008

Today we had a very long drive and spent the majority of the day in the bus to Pucon. We did have a short stop at Santa Cruz, to see the Museo de Cochagua. It is Chile's biggest private museum and is owned by a local millionaire who made his fortunes dealing in weapons. For a long time he was on the top 10 list of wanted criminals by the US. He now can't leave Chile without being arrested and imprisoned.
Pucon is a ski resort village close to Villarica volcano which is a still active volcano that can be climbed. It is probably Chile's biggest tourist destination and there are heaps of things that you can do from here. After the long bus ride we were all very tired so we had dinner and fell into our beds exhausted. I have to mention also that the beds at our hostel in Pucon were the softest, most comfortable beds we have slept in since we left home!

The plan was to get up very early so that we could be picked up and taken to Villarica to climb it Ducky
Ducky
 . Unfortunately when we woke up it was raining and so we were unable to climb the volcano. It did mean though that we were able to go back to bed for a sleep in in our incredibly snug beds. When we finally got up a group of us went to breakfast and then we all ended up deciding to make use of our day in Pucon by doing the ducky activity. Ducky-ing is a bit like rafting except it is only the size to fit two people. So we got kitted up in our wetsuits, booties etc and headed to the river. Matt and I were in one boat, Lisa and Gel were and another and Connie and Martin were in another. We had two guides and a photographer/rescuer. Matt and I started with me at the back steering and Matt in the front paddling, but after a few rapids we came in contact with a big branch and we fell out of our boat and I had to be rescued from under the tree by Stephan the photographer. After this we swapped and this seemed to work better. We did have another incident where I managed to fall out of the boat while Matt managed to stay in. And I had a scary/comical few minutes trying to get back into the boat whilst going over rapids and rocks. We had a great time and we all we very pleased with our activity for the day. Later that night we all headed to the nearby thermal springs for relaxation and drinks. We all fell into bed again very exhausted and happy.
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