We landed in Temuco, part of the Lakes Region of Patagonia, and drove about 90 minutes to Pucon. This town, like Queenstown in the south island of New Zealand, is a major center of “adventure” tourism in Chile. It is best known for thermal baths, hiking, rafting, skiing and the Villarrica Volcanco which recently erupted in March, 2015. The eruption exceeded the height of the volcano and all surrounding towns including Pucon were evacuated during the eruption. In March, we did not have our Patagonia plans finalized but heard about a major volcanic eruption. At the time, we never could seem to find out exactly where the eruption occurred. We were quite surprised to discover upon our arrival in Pucon that we were staying within miles of the Villarrica eruption of March 2015!
Even though the Villarrica Volcano is still active, tourists continue to make the hazardous and very arduous climb to the top. There are many days where the hiking companies cancel the hike due to weather conditions. This volcano is one of Chile’s most active volcanoes. The upper part of the volcano is permanently covered with snow with some 40 square kilometers of glaciers. A gorgeous sight from our hotel. We are staying in a charming “tree-house” type hotel. Last night we had one of the best dinners we have had in Chile in the gourmet restaurant connected to the hotel.
Late last night, we received a message from our son Alexander requesting that we call him as soon as we wake up in the morning. He had something very important to tell us. We also received a message from Christopher asking us if we had heard from Alexander. We had planned on doing a hike the next morning which was about 1 1/2 hours outside of Pucon. We decided to delay the hike; so, we could call Alexander at 6:30 a.m. California time. We both had an inclination that we were about to receive some wonderful news. Lesley could not wait any longer and called Alexander at 6:00 a.m. California time. After the second ring both Alexander and Ali answered the phone to inform us that they were engaged and will be married this fall (2016) in Kauai. We are so thrilled! We will have two weddings within a few months of each other. With the remaining 4 months of our trip starting again in March, 2016 and two weddings, it should be a busy year for us.
Because we got such a late start today, we decided to forego the hike and drive to Lake Quilleihue which is about 70 kilometers south of Pucon. On the map, it looked like we would be driving on gravel roads for the last 10 to 15 kilometers of the trip. With a rental car, we were a concerned about the condition of the gravel road. The scenery was absolutely spectacular, comparable to Glacier National Park. It seemed like every corner that we rounded there was another enormous rock formation exploding from the ground. The new road after Puesco was, to our delight, completely paved and went to to the border of Argentina. We drove around the mountain with drop-dead views of the mountains and lake; but, without our passports with us, we decided to turn around before we got to Argentina. We also drove via gravel roads to beautiful Lake Caburgua. The gravel road to Huerquehue National Park looked very rough so we opted not to take the risk in our rental car.
Tomorrow, we leave Pucon for a 3 1/2 hour drive to an another area of the lakes region of Patagonia called Puyehue.
