Pucon, Chile

Today we were up and out to the airport again to finally leave Santiago. It felt great to be starting the trip south and whilst the trip has been great so far I am not sure how I feel about Santiago. It is a bit of a bland city, a few interesting points and areas, fabulous food scene but lacks architectural style or depth. Wonderful to get my feet on the ground and adjust to South America, but I don’t need to come back. This post would mainly be a travel day so I am taking the opportunity to record some of the quirky things I saw in Santiago that made me smile: Super small coke cans – made for lower incomes or for when you just need a gulp? Running man – pedestrian crossing man started slow but sped up as it was about to change to encourage people to cross quickly (Chileans don’t move quickly!) Entertaining at traffic lights – saw jugglers, football skills, fire eaters that entertained traffic on red and then collected money quickly as it sped off! Anyhow, back to travel…. caught Skyairlines to Temuco, good flight. Rented a car from Rossalot one way hire and drove the couple of hours to Pucon. Lovely lakes and volcano views as we arrived to terrible traffic, well February is holiday month. Pucon is full of young people seeking adventures (feeling old!) and we head into town to review Volcano hike availability….yes, Justin wants to hike a volcano and assures me I will cope with the 4 hour assent. Sign up with aguadventures as recommended but can only get Wednesday availability and the forecast is dodgy. Tonight we shopped in the supermarket and cooked up a feast in our hostel, veggie pasta to get some nutrients back into our diet.