We arrived in the morning and set up the tent in the campsite. It was really nice, sunny weather so we spent the day at the black sand beach by the lake. We sunbathed but didn’t dare swim as the lake was freezing!
The next day we went to the ‘rustic’ hot springs. There were lots of small pools surrounded by rocks, some cold, some were the temperature of a hot bath and others were too hot to even sit in! We had quite a chilled out day there and then headed back to the campsite and cooked our tea on the gas stove.
The next day, we planned to go for a walk but woke up to rain. So, instead went to the thermal baths which were more like hot outdoor swimming pools. These were alot posher than the hot springs. It didn’t rain whilst we were at the baths but as we left and were waiting for the bus there was a huge storm, we got soaked and once we got back we packed up the tent and headed to a hostel. There was no way we could have camped in that weather.
We got to the hostel, made our tea there and chilled out.
The next day it was still crappy weather so in the morning we took a short walk to the beach and then went to a bar and watched England Vs New Zealand Rugby and had our second Chorillina whilst being in Chile. This is basically a mountin of chips topped with cheese/meat/veg. The storm started again whilst we were there so afterwards we went back to the hostel with a couple of bottles of wine, cooked tea and had some drinks. The hostel was really busy and everyone was drinking. We met 4 french people around our age who all spoke English so we spent the night drinking with them. We discovered our new favourite drink… Piscola! (Pisco and coke).
The next day, we decided to go kayaking down the rapids. We were going to get wet regardless so it didn’t matter if it rained. It was a 10am start, Kerry was feeling a little worse for wear to start after one too many piscola’s. We arrived at the river and got kitted up. The kayak was a 2 man one which meant we were both at the front and we both had a guide behind us doing most of the work. Kerry’s guide decided to tell us it was his 1st day working for the company and that he had never been on this particular river before. First of all we started on the grade 2/3 rapids which was crazy, we didnt expect the waves to be so big and choppy and then we went onto the grade 4 and 5 rapids. Kerry’s kayak tipped over, she had to swim to the edge and it was only the start of the rapid. It was very scary, the waves were so big and there were so many rocks so ended up with a bruised swollen elbow (which now feels much better). This was a really fun morning! In the afternoon we went to the pub to watch Man City beat United and then back to the hostel for another night of piscola with the French lot.
The next day we got up early and went to the national park which was a 6 hour hike up and down where there was waterfalls and lakes along the way. The path was very muddy due to all of the rain so our feet ended up sunk in lots of mud puddles and it was very slippy! In the evening we had a final night of piscola with the French… 3 nights in a row was like being back at uni!
On our last day in Pucon, the weather was still awful and we had soaking wet trainers from the day before so we got the bus in our flip flops to a waterfall, had lunch there and headed back to the hostel to have a chilled out day/ do some planning and booking for the rest of the trip.
Kerry and Jonho's Travels 