Volcanic Meca

Arriving at the only bus stop outside of Pucon at 10pm, I made the call to my contact in Valle Nevado who's brother resides in Pucon. He was working at a dope bar/restaurant call Cypress. All I was told is that its by the center of town, and everyone knows it. So I started pulling my Dakine bag which thankfully has good wheels like 8+ blocks where I was greeted by Roco with two pints of good beer and Empanadas all for around 4 dollars.

There was a group of French kids, old friends of Roco, I cruised the town with on this Friday night. At around 2am I was overtaken by hunger and was surprised to find a restaurant still open where I had the best chicken sandwich of my life. I guess that's why they name this place the best tourism infrastructure south of Costa Rica. From the bazillion eateries, bars, hostels, hotels, to every outdoor activity imaginable, this place is a tourist black hole. You can even spin around the central park in a kiddy go cart....if you're small enough. Careful though, the drivers in Chile are crazy, I did see some fender benders. Or maybe its a good idea to walk this area equipped with shin guards.

I spent my first day hung over...blaa, and just strolled the city talking to shop workers and the city folk. I also found my fruit store which I would become a daily loyal customer of. Chilean produce is where it's at! Especially eating it with this view~

The next day being a bit cloudy I decided to hold of on the skiing. I made an Empanada stop, rented a hard tail mtn. Bike, and headed for a 40k loop to another one of the 5 lakes in the region, Caburga. It was a pretty diverse ride. Some single track along the river, to a cool bridge, to a rarely traveled dirt road along the country side, ending at an amazing dead end.

The next days I headed for the volcano Viarrica, small ski area, HUGE HUGE HUGE volcano. My days there consisted of hitch hiking in the back of pickups, hiking as high as not having crampons would allow, skiing some off the best spring snow ever, and taking in the majestic views.

The rest of the time there seemed to easily slip away with hot springs, some intense tennis with Roco, and more city gazing. Before I knew it another week had past and I decided to head back to Santiago. Just in time for a last freak storm of the season that would leave over half a meter of cold stuff in the Cordillera of the central region. Good thing I didn't go to Bariloche~

Special thanks goes out to Roco for letting crash at his house and snapping this shot below.