It is COLD! Since our last post, we managed to finally get out of Santiago. The southern highway bridge is still out due to flooding, but our bus was rerouted and we made it to the beautiful Lakes District of central Chile. Our home base is Pucón, where we are staying in a 6 person cabin with kitchen and living room all to ourselves! Unfortunately, there´s no heat and at night water condenses on the ceiling above our bed, dripping icy droplets on our faces from above. But, the price is right and it´s been fun being able to grocery shop and make dinner- even doing dishes is exciting these days.
In order to see the sights outside the town, we rented a car. Drew proved his mechanic skills in changing a tire after Emily went through a pot hole at 70kmph and popped the tire like it was a bubblegum bubble. Luckily we had a spare, so after some hard work and a little swearing we were back in action:
The car proved essential to get us to the two national parks in the area: Parque Nacional Villarica, which includes the snowy volcano peak you can see in the photos below, and Parque Nacional Huerquehue, a stunning park where we hiked between three lakes, past waterfalls and unreal views. They both are beautiful and, because it is off season, completely and literally empty. We´ve had the area all to ourselves.
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- Us at the entrace of the park.
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- Our trusty steed for 2 days in Pucón, Chile.
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- A waterfall along the Tres Lagos hike.
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- Water from the waterfall coated everything below it in a few inches of crystalline ice.
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- Drew in a lava field with Volcán Villarica.
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- Chile?…or Switzerland?
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- Early morning frost on the drive to Parque Nacional Huerquehue.
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- A snowy peak reflected in the icy water.
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- Volcán Villarica and Lago Tuiquila.
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- Lago Toro, one of the lakes in the Tres Lagos trail in Parque Nacional Huerquehue.
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- Warming our toes in Los Pozones, one of the many hot springs in the area heated by volcanic activity underground.
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- The dog- nicknamed Scrappy- who followed us for three days around Pucón, Chile. If only we could bring her home…
Tomorrow, we will cross the border into Argentina to San Martin de Los Andes.
2 comments
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June 5, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Sue Bowerman
Hallo You Two,
We are following each positing and it is fun to see your photos. Thanks for the updates. We are excited that you will be home in less than 1 month!
Is the link to Si Quieres the one from the young woman you met a few months back and who was trying to fund a school?
Argentina must be lovely….stay warm!
Adjo …v elske,
The Briedlis from Nordland
June 10, 2008 at 2:38 pm
vonbergendotnet
i must get down to patagonia as soon as the spring comes… in the meantime, i take pictures around santiago. check my flickr if you like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vonbergendotnet/ cheers!
mike