Hotsprings, Horses & Hydroboards in Pucón
The Chilean Lake District is not that different from the Argentine one. There are crystal clear blue lakes, stunning snow-capped volcanoes and beautiful scenery everywhere you look. The one thing that was different for us was the weather. As we got dropped of at Pucón, glorious sunshine greeted us and after finding our accommodation we headed out to the tiny marina with a six pack of very cold Coroñas to watch the sunset over the lake. As luck would have it Jen and Liz (couple of friends from our GAP tour) were arriving in the morning and we were excited to be seeing the girls, to whom we had said goodbye just after midnight on NYE.
The following day, after a lovely late lunch with the girls in one of the busy cafes in Pucon, we headed over to the black sand beach for some real catching up. It was so good to hear about their travels; they had done many of the things we had but in a different order and we spent most of the afternoon talking, laughing, drinking G&Ts and eating a whole load of cheese and crackers.
To balance out our very lazy first day, we decided to hire mountain bikes the next morning and went off for an adventure. We left the paved road leading into Pucon and got on to the bumpy dirt roads across to find the nearby 'Ojos del Carbuga' waterfalls, some 19km away. It was hard going (for us ladies at least) due to steep winding hills we had to go up, but the views were stunning and we found a crystal clear river, which everyone went in for a very quick dip, except for me. Approximately 30 seconds was the longest stay in the water due to the freezing temperatures. We reached the waterfalls soon after and they were really worth while our hard slog up hill. Especially the warm meat empeñada I wolfed down by the entrance, more than made up for the pain. Our journey back was at least on paved roads and mostly downhill, but we were all feeling shattered and saddle-sore after our 6-hour bike ride and we treated ourselves to more drinkies and some lovely veggie food at the restaurant in our eco-hosteleria 'Ecole!'.
The adrenalin-junkies of our group, namely Liz and Mark, wanted to do body-boarding down the rapids the next day. These are the same class III rapids used for white water rafting, but protecting yourself with a wetsuit, helmet and a small floater you go down them head first and at about triple the speed of the raft. Hmmm… This seemed like a crazy idea, so Jen and I opted for a more leisurely morning of horse-riding (totally forgetting that we had saddle sores - Ouch!). Having been on a horse just once before I was slightly apprehensive at first but we had a great time. My horse, Luca, was mostly well behaved and we strolled up hills that would have killed us the day before on our bikes. We reached a beautiful forest on the foothills of the volcano and tied our horses down to go on a little walk. We clambered down some muddy tracks to a beautiful 84m waterfall. What a treat!
Saying goodbye was really hard. The girls came to the bus station with us and waited an age to wave us off. They did dance routines to make us laugh as the bus was pulling out and with tears running down my cheeks we left Pucón behind. It was an amazing little place; with trendy bars, clubs, lovely restaurants, very cool beach vibe and a tons of amazing activities to pick from, it was easily the best part of Chile yet, but I think what made it so special for Mark and I was the company we had had.
