Pucón

I have been to Pucón before, during my trip through the Lake District in Chile, but at that time the weather was rainy, so I could not see vulcano Villarica. But this time I saw the vulcano from one hour away, as the sky was blue and the sun made it warm for this time of the year.
The town was more quite than one month ago, which is not normal although it is already automn.

In Pucón I have the advantage to have stay at the house of a Flemish friend called David, who lives here with his Chilean family. Handy to find out more about the Chilean habits and politics.
The day after my arrival, we bumped into Sam and Gianni, my friends with whom I have spent time in Mendoza and a few days in Bariloche. That evening, we all enjoyed a Chilean asado at Davids place with funny pictures as result. The next day we did some sightseeing to Playa Blanca and discovered the favorite place to eat: Club 77.

Chili has a lot of National Parks, so on Monday I took the minibus to Parque Huerquehue, which gives a beautiful view on the Vulcano and at the top you can admire the typical Araucania tree.
The weather was great, sunny, a blue sky and a little bit of wind. The hiking path went 600 m up to 3 lakes surrounded by the local trees and on the way down I stopped at 2 waterfalls. I will miss the waterfalls, the mountains and the silence when I am back in flat Belgium, that is for sure.

I tried to hike up on the vulcano with David, as he is working here as a guide. But my achilles protested, even with pain killers, I could feel the pain. So I decided to stop, as 1400 m steep up the hill would hurt my achilles to bad. But it made me feel angry, I could not see the view of the valley from 2800m high and I could not experience the trekking to the crater and the sliding down in the snow/ice.
So I was brought to Pucòn and I went to the beach to relax and to enjoy the sun.

To relax even more the next day, I took a minibus to Los Pozonos, a place with natural hot spring...oh yeah. The place was in a small valley next to a river. The water in the pools is hot because of the hot stones due to the fact that this is a vulcano area. When entering Pucón, signs inform you that you arrive in a dangerous area. :) And I can confirm, as one of the vulcanoes in the area has yellow alert, which is the last alarm before erruption. And the earthquake in Talca, we felt in Pucón. First I thought I was still drunk from the night before, as my chair was shaking...

Chili is the country of vulcanoes, earthquakes, waterfalls and white water and earthquakes are a part of it!