Pucon, Chile

After the music festival was over Laura and I took an 11-hour bus ride down to Pucón, Chile. The first day we arrived we decided to try an activity called “hydrospeed.” Hydrospeed is basically white-water rafting down a river, but floating on a kickboard instead of in a raft. I was terrified of going into the freezing cold water.... luckily these sexy wetsuits, which were the thickest things we've ever seen. We were equipped with a wetsuit, booties, fins, life vest, much-needed helmet, and a kickboard and then plunged down a river of class 4 rapids. It was soo amazing and unlike anything I have ever done before. A serious adrenaline rush and well worth the occasional moments of fearing for our lives ☺.

On our second day, Laura and I did the most popular attraction in Pucón – the Villarrica Volcano hike. Villarrica is one of Chile's most active volcanoes. It is one of only five volcanoes worldwide known to have an active lava lake within its crater.

We woke up at 6am to embark on this 6-hour trek up the volcano. The top half of the volcano is covered in ice, so we had to put on snow gear, complete with crampons and an ice pick. Those should have been big warning signs that this was going to be a hard trek! But no one had warned me about the difficulty of the hike so I didn’t think twice. In fact, many of my friends have done this before, and all had related that it is SO beautiful, fun and totally a must do.... Not one mentioned how hard it would be.

please note how steep the mountain is behind us

hard core with my crampons and ice pick

I kid you not, this hike was the single most difficult physical activity I have ever done. Don't get me wrong it was an amazing view and a feeling of great accomplishment.... but that being said- I was not a happy camper on the way up. From the top we had views of the Andes in all directions. And at 3,000 meters, the highest peak around, we felt like we were on top of the world! On the downside, it was very hard to breathe at the top because of all the sulfuric gas coming out of the volcano. Our company provided gas masks at an additional cost. We decided to tough it out and coughed our way through for the photos opps. The BEST part of the whole thing, though, was the way down. We got to sled down the whole face of the volcano on our butts using our ice pick as a brake.

we made it to the top!

Suggestions for Pucón:

view from our hostel's balcony

We stayed right in the heart of Pucón at La Bicicleta Hostel.  The Owners are extremely nice and can help arrange any activities for you.
 

such delicious food!

Grab a snack or lunch at École - a restaurant in a hostel by the same name, that serves organic, locally grown foods.  Laura and I had such a hard time deciding what we wanted because everything looked so delicious!