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Pucon
13th April 2009
Pucon was an 11 hour bus ride south from Santiago and we had risked the Classico seats (the cheapest) to get an idea of the level of quality on this first Chile bus ride.
Luckily for us, the seats were more comfortable than long haul flights and made even better by the conductor of the bus who politely put a cushion behind everyones heads and generally made sure we were all OK. The bus was nice and modern with a toilet at the back, and it was only about a third full which was an indication that we were beginning to hit the off season.
Unfortunately the films were not the best they could have been. It started with ´The Bucket List´- apparently a funny film, but not understanding a word of Spanish kind of took away from the story. After that we were treated to a series of poor American sitcoms in English. This would have been a bonus but they were so bad I would have preferred them to be in Spanish. It was completed by the film ´Bridget Jones Diary´ in English. An OK film in English was about the best it got. The rest of the trip was a mixture of sleeping and listening to ipods while the flat Chile countryside skipped by.
Unfortunately, we made an assumption that the bus would stop for us to buy some lunch on the way. This not being the case, as apart from a couple of 5 minute stops, it was pretty much full steam ahead for the duration. We managed to make a bag of crisps, a snickers bar and an apple last for the journey.
We arrived in Pucon at about 10pm and wandered down the dark streets in town to find a hostel. After finding the main street (Bernado O´Higgins, there is a street in most towns with the same name), we accidentally read the number wrong and confidently set off in completely the wrong direction. At this point we were asked where we were going by a man talking to his friend. After our experiences in Asia, we were a bit suspicious of this, and as we told him the name of the hostel our guard was up, but when we mentioned the place he said that was his hostel and he would show us. Still feeling cautious (in Asia they make names up so you think you are going to the right place but actually go somewhere completely different) we follow him and as promised we arrive 5 minutes later at our hostel.
Our friendly guide then disappeared and we were left to check in with a very talkative and smiley Uruguayan man who was working at the hostel while travelling. After another few minutes we were installed in our double room with bathroom (a free upgrade courtesy of a tour bus booking taking the other rooms) and promptly left again in search of food. Luckily we found a nice pizza place before we headed back to the hostel and slept very happily due to two things... a very long day and a very cosy thick feather duvet.
The next day, after negotiating the deposit of a load of laundry with the lady at the hostel who spoke no English, we explored Pucon and were immediately struck by the huge volcano overshadowing the town. We had read about it in the book but couldn't´t see it last night as it was dark when we arrived, but the perfectly conical shape, flat top crater and snow around the sides made it an exact image of what a stereotypical volcano should look like.
The town felt like an alpine lodge with small timber properties and lots of restaurants and souvenir shops. We made a quick decision to not do the volcano climb and enjoyed the day seeing the black volcanic beach and main plaza and after checking the lights were still green on the seismic warning centre, we checked emails and invested in a coffee, eyeing up the large wooden Jesus statue at the end of the road.
Apart from the volcano, or some other activities like rafting, there is not really a lot to do in Pucon so we managed to waste the afternoon discussing our ongoing plans for heading south and booking our bus ticket to Valdivia for the next morning. The morning gave us the bonus of seeing the volcano smoking away. It hadn´t been doing this yesterday. I assume even volcanoes need a rest from time to time but it was both exciting and a touch scary to have been staying pretty much directly underneath an active volcano.
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