It's been one hell of a night! The "easy" transfer at San Fernando we had been told about wasn't quite that. After arriving at 21.30 and doing the rounds of the bus operator offices, struggling with my limited Spanish and their unwillingness to speak slowly or even point me in the right direction, we pull aside a friendly rare passer by who translates for us that all buses to Pucon are full and our only hope is to try an operator that opens in 15 minutes. Half an hour later we are told by the newly open desk that they too are full but we can maybe get a bus to nearby (2hrs away) Vilcun if we come back in an hour and no one has bought the tickets in Santiago????? Ok, confused we go along with it and hour later we have tickets to Vilcun, from where we must make another 2 transfers. Oh, and the bus only leaves at 1.05am (although they all run at least half an hour late...). So at 2am we finally set off on a 7 hour journey south. By the morning we have been fortunate to have met another Chilean whose English is about as good as my Spanish who is headed in the same direction. He joins us on a hectic ride through to Temuco where we arrive just in time for our next and final transfer. Temuco is a working city, pretty run down and on a cold foggy morning, definitely not very appealing. As we head off through the scummy neighbourhoods I am starting to wonder if my idea to bring us to southern Chile was such a good idea after all.
Lo and behold, over the next two hours as we climb away from the gritty city, the sun burns through the fog to reveal a new landscape of green forested mountains and a large snow capped volcano that loom over the picturesque timber and stone town of Pucon and Lake Villarica. After a small mission we find the best digs in town at Donde German Hostel with breathtaking views over the surrounding forests and volcano: Score!!! We spend the rest of the day pottering about this cool little town, soaking up the sun by the lake and catching up on news from the outside world. Happy Birthday Mum!
Speak very soon! Love you all very much!
Hey Timmy, I just found this killer translator on my smartphone. It is "google translate" and you can literally speak into it in english and it will speak back to you in spanish and write it out as well. Very cool. Been looking at your blog and Janes FB. Sounds like an adventure!!
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