First rule of Pucón: weather rules everything. When it rains/hails all day, there is really not much to do but huddle up next to a fire or under blankets and wait for the weather to pass. That is how I spent the day yesterday. I had brief moments of hope, when I would think maybe it was clearing up enough to go for a run. But then the downpour would resume, and I would settle in with another cup of tea. Not much to write about there, except I skyped with Rael (made me very very happy), and I found out Gatito's name is Runa.
This morning I went to the next door hostel to see if those folks wanted to ski today. They instead hoped to go to Huilo Huilo, a national park with entrances in both Chile and Argentina, and with many waterfalls and "magical tree-houses". While deciding whether the long trip would be possible, I got a call from Gloria asking me to return to Paradise. Duty finally called! Gloria was very nice, friendly, eager to have me around, and knew exactly what to do with me. There were 2 German girls who had arrived and were figuring out what to do with their days in Pucón. I translated between Gloria (little English) and the Germans (little Spanish), and realized that I could also try to organize the folks next door. Because of long distances and bad weather, most national parks were out for the day. Gloria suggested we go to another lake nearby that has waterfalls and beautiful rivers. She said we could take a bus or ride horses, but that it was about a 1 1/2 hour mountain bike ride. ¡Perfecto! The Germans also wanted to go into town to reserve their ascent of the volcano tomorrow, but I ran to the hostel next door and rallied the troops for mountain biking before accompanying the Germans.
We rented bikes across the street from the volcano tour company and were on our way, just as the mid-day volcano alarm went off. Lauchlan/Locky (one of the Australians next door) had already walked some of the road we were to take, so he served as our leader, although we all semi-jokingly talked about me now being an official guide. We knew that we could pass the waterfalls and get to the lake by taking either a dirt side road, or the main paved road, or do a loop. Locky took us on the more rugged route, partly to pass a Mapuche reservation. Gorgeous scenery, pretty gnarly terrain. The combination of volcanic gravel, a too big bike, and Mike (other Australian) running me off the road led to a few spills but nothing major.
Uh-oh. Just realized Runa ate through the cable that charges my camera. Not good at all. Must go to camera store ASAP.
So mountain biking. We would stop briefly at the top of some of the steeper hills, but we pretty much just kept going. Lauchlan insisted that the lake was very close for maybe about 2 hours. We eventually got to Ojos del Caburgua, a turn off that leads to an amazing river with waterfalls and lush forests. So incredible.
We hiked around for a while, then hopped back on bikes and kept going. We ended up at the paved road, where we realized that we were 5 km from the lake in one direction and 19 km from Pucón in the other direction, and we had about an hour before we were supposed to return our rented bikes.
We sped down the highway, with the smoking volcano as a constant point of reference for how close we were to town. We arrived at the rental place with 4 minutes to spare before our deadline of 5 o'clock.
I showed the Germans where the supermarket is, and had a shocking realization. I thought Pucón was a ghost town out of (Jewish) cultural ignorance. I happened to wander the town on a Sunday during church time. Duh. At this time, the streets were bustling with school children, shoppers, store-owners, adventure companies, and adventure seekers. Much better. Back to Paradise Pucón, then back to the Volcano tour office to be fitted for all of our gear. We depart tomorrow at 7am, crampons and ice pick at the ready.
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