Pucon is a town of less than 15,000 people that quintuples in population during peak tourist season. It is approximately 700 km south of Pichilemu and is a popular adventure destination for Chileans and other South Americans. It is stunningly beautiful with the Villarica Volcano as a backdrop and there are great restaurants and cafes catering to foodies. This is the view approaching Pucon.
There were a great number of activities available. Liam and I went horseback riding one day. The countryside was gorgeous. The weather was perfect always.
We rented mountain bikes to ride around town. The bikes spent more time resting against trees than been ridden by us. We had to eat afterall.
It's not all roses, of course. We had some challenges with our accommodations. We moved from our first hostel due to the noise and the smell. It was the smell of death, as if the previous resident in my bunk didn't make it and was left to rot on my mattress for about a week. The second hostel was much better, except for the first night when a group of young guests pulled up in front of our bedroom window during the wee hours and played very loud electronic music in their car. I actually stormed out of our room in my bare feet and ran out the front door with the night manager in tow and started yelling at them to turn off the music. I was pretty close to jumping on their car and doing a jig until the hostel staff intervened. This is a little out of character, but I was severely sleep deprived. I don't feel too bad about it. One of my favorite artists, Mark Knopfler, has a lyric that goes 'Sometimes you got to put a shoulder to the door.' We would have been up the entire night if I hadn't made a show.. The hostel, L'ecole, had a great vegetarian restaurant. It was such a gift. We had many great evenings there. Everyone who worked there was superb. One night, the kids had their own table.
I had little intention of staying at hostels when we began this trip, but it turns out that it is a great way to meet the most interesting people and to get great travel advice. I really enjoy it now as long as we continue to mix it up with apartments and hotels as well.
We bought some great travel gear when we began this trip. We had our super backpacks adjusted individually for our torsos and were ready to ascend any peak. As it turns out we could have made do with a Samsonite. We generally stuff our knapsacks haphazardly and throw the overflow into these big black bags that we bought to protect our backpacks during air transit. Kristin demonstrates our typical move above.