Pucón

Volcán Villarrica - this is a photo I took from our hotel room!

It was a seemingly extra long week after postponing our original trip to Pucón, but we finally made it! By the time Thursday night rolled around, Kyle and I were bouncing off the walls. Our enthusiasm continued when both of us were pleasantly surprised with the bus itself. There were two options for seating that you could choose: Semi-Cama, which were cheaper seats that only leaned back a little bit and were about 6 in a row, with 20 rows, on the top floor of the bus or Salon-Cama which was on the second floor and I would equate to “first class” for an airplane. In the whole section there were only 8 seats and they were enormously plush and comfortable. They leaned back almost 90% of the way and allowed for Kyle and I to be so comfortable that we slept flawlessly almost the entire 10 hours. It was a pretty insignificant price difference between that and the Semi-Cama seats so I’m utterly confused as to why everyone doesn’t do it. For a trip that long, I truly cannot imagine doing anything different. It was clean, quiet and an all around smooth ride.

When we arrived to our hotel, the Del Volcan Apart Hotel, it was approximately 9 am Friday morning. The staff was super accommodating and allowed us to check in right away (normally check in was around 1 pm). They also let us extended our check out on Sunday from 12 pm to 8 pm, since our bus wasn’t until late, for a super minimal fee. I would definitely stay there again – on top of being so accommodating, it was clean, spacious and smack in the middle of the city. Our room was on the 5^th floor and we had an enormous skylight that had one of the best views of the volcano in all of the hotel.

            Saturday was supposed to be our “big” day in that we had plans to wake up at 6 am and hike the volcano, Volcán Villarrica, all the way to the top – an ordeal that would have taken about 9 hours. It’s a serious hike involving special clothing, crampons, an ice axe and a million other things I had never seen let alone used before. We sleepily made it to the tour agency, got suited up and took a 30-minute transfer to the base of the volcano. We jumped out of the car super excited and were immediately deflated when our tour guide announced that we weren’t going to be able to climb. The park rangers decided there was too much fog at the top, which blocked our view of huge chunks of falling ice, which could obviously be fatal. We took a few pictures at the base (it was still super high compared to the town of Pucón) and sadly made our way back to the agency.

Our one and only picture at the base of the volcano - Notice we're above the clouds in the background though!

With no alternate plans, Kyle and I went back to sleep for a few hours and then found another tour agency called Patagonia Experience, who rented us bikes to go around and explore what Pucon had to offer on our own. Sunday we went back to Patagonia Experience and took a half-day tour exploring the surrounding area. Our guide, Joaquin, took us to three different places. The first was Ojos de Caburga, a private reservation full of fresh, lush vegetation, at least 5 or 6 turquoise waterfalls and millions of wild flowers. The second was Lago Caburga, which is a big lake that stretches as far as the eye can see, surrounded by hills and other smaller volcanoes in comparison to Volcán Villarrica. It was absolutely beautiful – a clear, crystal blue and truthfully it wasn’t even that cold! The third place was another reservation called El Salto de Mariman. There it felt like we were in the middle of the rain forest, surrounded by so many different plants and flowers. Going through the middle was a huge river, known for white water rafting and kayaking. We were able to see a few groups go screaming down the river while we walked.

Ojos de Caburga Waterfalls

Ojos de Caburga

Walkway in Ojos de Caburga 

Kyle and our guide Joaquin, walking out towards Lago Caburga

Lago Caburga

Lago Caburga

All weekend, Kyle was in heaven. All of these activities were exactly the types of things he loves to do. He was so disappointed about not being able to climb the volcano and it made me happy to see him so thrilled with our other activities. If given the choice, I would absolutely 100% return to Pucón. Next time, hopefully to hike the volcano. It has such a small-town, rustic feel with real wooden cabins and wilderness around every corner. Although I’ve never been, Kyle said it reminded him a lot of Colorado or Utah. The hike for us was like a gateway drug: we just wanted to experience more and more. After seeing the white water rafting and other activities like scuba diving and fly-fishing, we kept wishing we had more days to spend there. When we boarded our bus Sunday night, it was halfhearted. But on the bright side, we now have so much enthusiasm for planning our next trip back!

The area that Pucón is located in is known for their wooden crafts - Kyle started to collect spoons!