Feb 17, 2009 - Termas Geometricas

February 17, 2009 We woke up, showered, and had breakfast. We drive for what felt like an eternity until we reached the lake. The lake was pretty but nothing special, so we got back in the car and drove for twenty eternities until we reached the hot springs. The place was stunning, trees everywhere, stone pools, and flowing water. We changed and tried out a few pools. Some were hotter than others but they were all very soothing. Then we ate lunch. After lunch we continued trying pools until we reached the pool with the waterfall. The...

Jan 26, 2009 - Pucon et Caburgua

Plus loin aprés Villarrica il y a la ville de Pucon. Nous avons l'impression de nous retrouver avec la meme impression désagréablequ'a El Calafate (dossier 24). Pucon est une ville purement touristique. Certes, on peut faire de tout ici: il y a le lac, l'assention du volcan, du rafting, de l'acrobranche, du kayak et des nombreuses thermes. Mais notre budget de 20 euros par jour pour deux ne nous permet pas toute ces attractions touristiques (bien qi'avec tous ces campings sauvages nous tombons bien en dessous de la moyenne). Nous poussons...

Dec 7, 2008 - Pucón and Volcán Villarrica, Chile

Ravi -- Pucón, an overnight trip south of Santiago, in Chile, was the first stop in our nearly three week tour of the southern-most part of South America, taking us back and forth between Chile and Argentina, though their respective Lakes Districts and Patagonia, to the very southern tip of the continent. Pucón is a small town that sits along Lake Villarrica. German influence in the region has led to many of the buildings made as wooden cottages, leaving us with the feel of a German or Swiss small village. Very charming and cozy! The main...

Oct 15, 2008 - Pucón

Lively Pucón turned out to be one of the best places we've visited so far. Arriving after a relatively short journey, we walked out of the bus station with little or no sense of direction, and only a vague idea of which hostel we wanted to stay at. In short, we looked like a pair of dumb tourists. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were approached by a lady called Verónica who offered us a room in her homestay for 4000 pesos each per night. This sounds a lot but is actually only 4 GBP and less than half the going rate of...

Jul 4, 2008 - Climbing a Volcano!

Before I get into the interesting details of "climbing a volcano" let us start where we left it last time. We were in Argentina in a place called Bariloche, waiting for snow that never came. Next stop on the trip was to hop back into Chile and north up to a town called Pucon. It was the 3rd time, and not the last time, that we crossed the Andes mountain range and the Argentina/Chile border. We figured that the reason for the border crossings is because Chile is the skinniest country in the world. A small fact for you - Chile is over...

Apr 11, 2008 - Puerto Varas to Pucon

So far on our travels we've heard only good things about Pucon and the adventure activities you can do here. So with that mind-set we book up: climbing a volcano, hydro-speed (body-surfing down rapids), fishing and thermal springs... some more active and adrenaline based than others. The first day is wet and we just decide to head straight to the thermal springs (we're starting slowly) where there are 7 pools of varying temperature all heated by the volcano, the hottest being about 40 degrees, which is nice as it's freezing out of the...

Apr 1, 2008 - Pukin', or I mean, Pucon

Limping into Pucon, Jassalyn was nearly fully recovered from her food poisoning incident. Pucon is a major tourist destination here in Chile and a 'can't miss' city, according to the hordes. It really isn't the city that is so amazing, it is the imposing nature of Mt. Villarica, a very active volcano with its base mere miles from town. The city is straddled between this mountain, class V rivers, hot springs, and a number of massive, frigidly cold, glacially created lakes making it even more of an 'adventurer' type town that really is quite...

Mar 29, 2008 - Pucon

Travelled from San Martin de los andes, which was similar to Bariloche only smaller. We spent a day sports climbing (overlooking the sewage works -which wasn't working very well so we didn't have a swim in the lake!) before heading back to Chile on a 6am bus to the touristy town of Pucon. Pucon is dominated by the active Volcan Villarrica and lake of the same name. Planning to climb the volcano we showed our BMC cards (they are v funny about unguided ascents) and arranged transport for the following day. The next morning the weather was...

Mar 28, 2008 - Pucon

Made the 5 1/2 hour bus journey north to get into the thermal bath area. Went on the night time session to get the full effect of the therms at Thermas Pozones. 5 pools were beside a river. Great experience and the Southern sky added to it with a full complement of stars on view. I still have no idea what they all are but in a moment of boredom I shall educate myself - the stars will therefore remain a mystery! Met up with my room mate and my next door neighbours in the hostel Ecole (not to be recommended by the way even though both Lonely...

Mar 7, 2008 - Under the Shadow of the Volcano

Friday Apart Hotel del Volcan Pucon Pucon is pronounced poo kon and not poo son as we'd been saying it. We chose a bus trip to this southern lakes district so that we could see the scenery on the way. Continuing jet lag meant we slept for a lot of the 11 hours and fortunately there wasn't a lot to see! We expected a luxury bus and got an OK one; we were the only gringos on board. The bus stopped at every major town on the way to set down and pick up passengers and at one stop it nearly left us behind when we hopped off to buy an ice cream....

Jan 3, 2008 - Patagonia - Part Deux

Pucon is the Chilean equivalent of Bariloche. Another town thats got everything to offer an outdoor enthusiast. There's the regular stuff, rafting the runoff, horseback riding in the wilderness, hiking etc. but there is one thing here that very few places offer and that is Volcano climbing. OK, you are right, its anoher hike, but this one is wicked cool. You get outfitted with all the gear, a waterproof jacket, waterproof pants, boots, crampons, gloves, beanie, helmet, ice axe and a backpack to carry it all. First, this is an active...

Nov 20, 2007 - Pucón

In Pucón erfuhren wir, dass der letzte Winter in der ganzen Region sehr hart war (der schneereichste in den letzten 40 Jahren) und auch hier nicht daran zu denken sei, in der Höhe ein Trekking durchzuführen.Und dabei wäre doch der chilenische und argentinische Lake District DAS Trekking-Mekka schlechthin und das Trekken der eigentliche Grund, weshalb wir hierhin gereist sind! Henu, umdenken - das geht am besten in einem der unzähligen Kaffees (riiiiiesige Glacé-, Kuchen-, Torten- und Praliniéauswahl) bei Süssem und Kaffee. Karten wurden...