Chillan and Pucon

The journey from Valparaiso to Pucon (our next main stop) was a bit long for our liking so we decided to stop halfway, in Chillan, for a night. Whilst it's quite a quiet town and has a faintly chavvy feel, it had quite a nice vibe and a decent craft market to wander around. It was also good to be somewhere off the main tourist track. Other than the market, the only site to speak of was the church and the enormous concrete cross outside it which commemorated the Chileans killed in the 1939 earthquake.

The next day, we completed the second leg of our bus journey to Pucon. As we approached Pucon, there were some amazing lake front houses - testimony to the growing wealth of Chile - however Pucon itself is decidedly unChilean. The town is pretty but every single shop is tourist oriented and prices are pitched accordingly. In fact, in our time in Pucon, we didn't meet a single person who was actually from Pucon - even all the Chileans in Pucon seemed to be from Santiago on a summer break.

That said, the setting of Pucon at the base of Volcan Villarica and on the shores of a beautiful lake is very picturesque and so Pucon is full of outdoor activities. Simon tried out the white water rafting and canyoning - the white water rafting was decent but not as good as in NZ, the canyoning was awesome. I was a bit chicken and decided to keep the water activities for another time and went trekking in the Parque Nacional Huerquehue with Jane, who we met whilst up north. Whilst the park had some some amazing views - especially those of the lakes - we picked a rainy, foggy day for the hike which got in the way of some of the panoramic views.

Whilst in Pucon, we were recommended a language school so decided to take the opportunity to sign up to some Spanish lessons. What a shock to the system! The 9 o'clock starts proved to be pretty tough together with the solid 3 hours of Spanish which followed (our teacher didn't speak a word of English). However, they were definitely worth it and we often rewarded ourselves with cake after. We still have a very long way to go, but at least we can start to try and communicate with the locals.

On the slightly more random side of things, amongst our lasting Pucon memories will be -

- stray dogs everywhere;
- talking gun control with a Texan that talked like a Californian surfer and insisted that no matter what anyone else said "guns are sick man and shootin' is sick and I'm going to shoot my guns on my land whenever I want"; and
- hearing the loudest burp ever and turning around to see that it had come from a little old lady who must have been the better part of 80.