As i said the horse ride wasn´t great: On our first day in Pucon we were rather slow getting out of bed, fed and onto the streets to organise our first activity. Personally i blame the horrendous ride the night before but the fact that we only hit the streets at 2pm might be just the fact that we are starting to get the jist of the latino way of life which inbvolves rising late and staying up till the early hours of the morning. I´m not going to go too deep into this day as the horse ride which promised healthy horses running through fields and rivers didn´t really resenble the lacklustre donkeys that relunctantly carried us around the local roads and tracks whilst being pushed on and whipped by a dear old farmer who of course didn´t speak a word of english. ¿Cuales son los nombres de caballos (what are the horses names)? Ha ha ha! No tienen nombres (no names...of course - these were working horses).
Later that night we saw the weather was to be best the next day and that would be the best day in the coming week to climb the mighty Villarica Volcano which stands at 2847m.So the next morning we rose early (this time actually early! 5.30am) and headed over to an organised pick up point in the dark to head to the base of the volcano. By the time we got there a stiff breeze was blowing and the sulphuric fumes were blowing partly down the hill side. The guides give you an option at this point to call it quits and head home and try another day, or head up and assess further up the hill. Our guide seened quite confident that the wind would likely die off as the day progressed and we made the call to head on up as many others were also.
The climb was tough. Thta i must admit. Tougher that i thought it would be. Halfway up you must transfer to crampons as you pass over the glacier before moving back onto to loose rock and ruble in a steep 45 degree assent for the final hour. In total the climb took us about 5 hours to the top and about 3 hours to get back down! The warm shower that night hadn´t felt that good in a while.
Thye following day we followed the clinb which had been hard on the lower body with a little upper body exercise. Heading about a half hour out of Pucon we joined the Trancura River which runs down a series of class 3-5 rapids! FUN! Never been white water rafting before and i know that it is something that i will look forward to again. Our guide was an expert and thoroughly enjoyed throwing us down the river in every which direction or simply spinning us down over the falls. In the end he proposed we all jump in and drift down the final section which for some stupid reason we actually did. FREEZING!!! Glad i had my gopro on to capture Janes´face at the end and she shivered down the river.
Later we went out to an incredible restaurant in town called "Trawen". We had had many recommendations but were still blown away by the delicious Bacon wrapped Venison and Antarctic Krill stuffed trout! Yummo! What a day! Way to celebrate the first month of our married life together!
The only thing to do the following day was to soak it all off in the beautiful Pozones hot springs. High up in the mountains a series of natural sand bottomed pools are set along the edge of a flowing river. The weather was grey and wet that day which is why we chose this activity. Beautiful and warm and surrounded by nature we soaked our aches away.
Later that night we jumped on the bus leaving town for a twelve hour journey back up to Civilization. Valparaiso - a colourful working harbour west of Santiago - you will have a hard time to live up to Pucon!
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