Pucon is situated at the foot of the still active mount Villarrica volcano and is very much an adrenalin junkies paradise! Throughout winter it's a ski resort but during the summer months it's main draw is the volcano climb, rafting and other ridiculous activitys. We were staying in a gaff called Willy's hostel which had a great communal area, a kitchen which was great being able to cook for ourselves, and our very own dog (well it was the owners daughters) called Vodka who was amazing value. So it was on NY eve morning, slightly hungover from a few too many beers with Cat the night before and deciding the volcano wasn't for me (which with hindsight I now regret), a bunch of us headed off for a bit of canopy zip lining which was a hoot! Being of a slightly fuller figure than the rest of the guys, my experience was a little more fraught with danger as I was slung a little lower and therefore closer to the branches but managed to avoid the big sharp b*****s and surprisingly survived unscathed! It wasnt long before we all reconvened at Hostel Willy and started the first of 3 new year count downs. The first of which was 9pm for the Brits (probably a little early to be as battered as we were but it's not every year you get to celebrate at the base of a volcano in Chile in such fine company so an acception was made) and had a dance about arm in arm singing Auld Lang Syne. The next was midnight which we made our way down to the volcanic beach for, sporting fetching mascarade masks that myself and Cat had picked up that morning and were treated to an amazing fireworks display over the lake followed by a few Karate kid crane kick inspired photos before leading everyone on a merry jig through the streets back home. Some Aussie bloke insisted on calling me Carl as I reminded him of a certain Mr Pilkington... I'd like to think he was the idiot abroad and not me but that period of the night is still tad blurry so I could well have been talking absolute tosh! The final New years celebration of the night was for the American contingent Lesley and Allison which was unfortunately at 5am and for some daft reason both me and Tom had reassured them they wouldn't be celebrating alone... well it turned out Allison would be as she b*****ed off to bed at 3 so for the sake of petty one-up man ship we powered on through (apparently I passed out on the floor for half an hour which I still dispute) until 5 for what would be the shortest new years celebration ever and was in bed asleep by 5.02 - job done!
New years day was a bit of a struggle but true to my word I managed to drag myself out of bed to cook brunch with Elaine for everyone which went down a storm. After successfully wandering the streets in search of a magnum ice cream me, Tom, Cat and Mauro plonked ourselves down on the sofa and proceeded to invent a ball and waste paper bin game that we christened Ades (after a brand of fruit juice over here... pardon the pun but the creative juices just weren't flowing) which will undoubtedly go global and take over from football in a few years time once the founders can agree on the rules. Miraculously the mini football used for the inaugural press of Ades had made it all the way from Uruguay - not putting Francisco 'not to be trusted with football sitting' Garcia in charge of it might have had something to do with it getting so far! For some strange reason finishing off the left over booze from the night before became a priority and now operating on a different time schedule to everyone else the 3 of us that saw in Seattle's new year again found ourselves slightly pissed playing stupid arse card games at 4.30am... Sleepin's cheatin!
On our final day in Pucon 7 of us signed up for some white water rafting and had an absolute blast. After shoe horning ourselves into the wetsuits and fetching attire and in my opinion an all too brief safety briefing in spanish and arm flapping from our slightly unhinged instructor we set off down river. Sensing my trepidation Señor nut nut positioned me at the front of the boat with Mauro and we pretty much bore the brunt of everything the river could throw at us. Being stranded on a rock in the middle of a rather feirce rapid and having to clamber to the back of the boat to dislodge us proved to be hilarious and a highlight for the rest of the team whilst simultainiusly scaring the s**t out of me... Cue a lot of swearing, slipping over, histerical laughter and ultimately the adoption of the foetal position! Cat getting stuck helplessly on the side of the boat and having to be hauled on board whilst laughing to the point of near bladder control loss would be my personal highlight (sorry Battersby). By the end we all agreed we could have tackled much tougher waters and are looking forward to the next opportunity to get stuck in!
Next stop Santiago.....