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Soaking up the Tourism

By Mike Beris - 2009-06-05

Patagonia was almost behind us. The snowy mountains, blue rivers, and spectacular skies, would soon be replaced by strip malls, tractor-trailers, and busy metro-areas. We had one last chance for Patagonian adventure-tourism: the exciting town of Pucon, nestled between Lake Villarrica and Volcano Villarrica. It promised to give us one last taste of the active, cold-weather active lifestyle.

We treated ourselves to a stay in a hospedaje. This is like a hostel, except it’s a bit more like someone’s home, instead of a dormitory. Another East Coaster was there: Amy, from Washington, D.C., was spending her two weeks vacation revisiting some towns she studied in a few years ago. She fell into place, putting up with our adventure-cyclist scent and lack of social graces. The four of us spent the next six days alternating between relaxing in the hospedaje (cooking, watching movies, reading, checking Facebook), and soaking up the attractions of the adventure town.

Our first exciting activity was white-water rafting, which Dan’s blog does a great job of describing. The cold river water was a lot more fun since we knew that we had a hot shower, dry beds, and a wood-burning stove to return to.

The biggest attraction in Pucon is climbing Volcano Villarrica. Unfortunately, days of overcast skies made this impossible, as the guides wouldn’t take people up. We kept on hearing that Tuesday would bring a clear sky and a chance to summit the volcano. The night before, we relaxed in some thermals: pools that are naturally heated by the super-hot stuff going on underground. My gastro-intestinal tract thought I didn’t need much sleep that night, and the next morning, I made the difficult decision not to hike the six hours up the volcano.

One of the coolest activities we did while in Pucon didn’t involve mountains, rivers, or diarrhea. We got to video chat with some kids at a school in New York City. This was extra special for us, because it was a class that we had visited before leaving for South America. Check out the video!