Pucón!

Pucón is the one of the major tourist destinations in Chile because of it's many outdoor activities. People can zip line, climb volcano, white water raft, hike, ride horses, climb rocks, kayak, and many other things that I'm forgetting to mention right now. With a view like this when entering the city, who wouldn't want to stay in Pucón for a few days? After an overnight bus ride, we arrived in Pucón Friday morning and travelled around the area. There were so many lakes, waterfalls, and vegetation to gander at. We spent all Friday traveling around the town on bus and seeing what there was to see in the immediate area.

Friday we also were able to go to a farm where a traditional Mapuche woman lives. Although she has a house like many other people in Chile, she also had a traditional Mapuche hut which she invited us into. The Mapuche people are the original people of Chile, and a large percentage of Chileans today claim they are descendants of the Mapuches even if they do not hold on to any aspect of the culture. After telling us about the story of her ancestry, about keeping her culture alive, and about how grateful she was to be able to share it with us, we shared a small meal of fried bread with awesome pico de gallo (although they do not call it that here, I can't remember what they exactly call it), and rolls with marshmallow like cream on the top. We drank tea or instant coffee and enjoyed the atmosphere.

We went through an excursion company called Politur. After getting our entire group organized (there's 70 or so of us students through the International Studies Abroad program), I was signed up to climb the volcano Saturday and zip line and raft on Sunday. Saturday morning we were ready to climb this volcano, Villarica, one of the ten most top active volcanoes in the world. We woke up at 6am, went to the Politur office, put on ginormous winter boots that we fitted the day prior, strapped on huge backpacks full of supplies and loaded the bus. We drove the 30 minutes to the base of the volcano. When we got there, we stood at the base for a few minutes before  authorities came and told us that we would not be able to climb today. Although the base conditions were perfect, there was more rain and wind higher up the volcano. We were bummed. So instead of climbing the volcano on Saturday, I went rafting and zip lining. Both were super awesome. I'd never done either before, and I had so much fun. The rafting was not too intense, but on one rapid named Hell's gates (in spanish), two people fell out of our boat. That was kind of crazy to see. I don't know if this is common or not, but we also were able to get out and swim a bit and jump off a huge rock after we had to get out and walk around one rapid that would have been too dangerous. Level 6 on a scale of 1-6. The water was so cold, so I was glad that we were able to wear wet suits. We were attractive to say the least :) Saturday night I went out with some friends and enjoyed some Pisco sour, the national drink of Chile.      

Sunday, I was even more ready to hike the volcano. We did the same routine. Up at 6, booted, backpacked, bussed to the base. When we got there, however, we were dismayed to hear the same news. We were unable to climb the volcano because there was a storm higher up. We could see clouds moving up there, so it seemed like the storm was moving, but they said it was just swirling around the volcano. I was very disappointed. But, not being able to climb the volcano led to fun picture time -->
(note: cool unplanned color coordination)

Not being able to climb the volcano, we had 8 hours left in the day before we were to get on the bus back to Valparaíso. A few friends and I decided to take a taxi a half hour to the national park Huerquehue. Once there we hiked for about 5 hours altogether. We saw lots of green! It reminded me of home a little bit. There were two awesome waterfalls --> on the way to the top of our hike, where three lakes waited for us. It felt so good to go hiking. I hadn't done any workout for awhile, so stretching my legs and hiking, hiking, hiking felt good. We had a friend join us on the walk down. He was a black dog that seemed to be joining random groups of walkers for a bit during the day. When we got to the bottom, we heard from at least 3 other groups that he had spent time with them that day.

Overall Pucón was fantastic. Although I didn't get to climb the volcano, I had fun with the other activities. My friends and I ate dinner together in the cabin both nights as a family and made a lot of memories throughout the whole weekend.

More adventures to come :)