Haciendo Afiche y Guía a Caburgua

I like feeling like I do a good job. Sometimes I'm a perfectionist. When I don't feel I do a good job, it bothers me. Sometimes that is a good thing (summa cum laude), and sometimes I can be too critical of myself (feeling I didn't deserve to be here). For a few days, I barely left the hostel and had not enough tasks to occupy my always wandering mind. I was making a flyer/poster/photo collage for the hostel, but I felt like I was neither earning my keep nor taking advantage of my time here. Not having a reason to wake up in the morning can be both relaxing and slightly depressing. Those feelings have passed. Gloria loves what I made for the hostel (and I do too), and guests arrived who I could guide!
My flyer/poster:

Tastes of my hostel's area and of Pucón:
Across the street-

The main street downtown-

Gloria made seafood paella for lunch-

I made fruit salad for dessert-

Yesterday, a Brazilian girl (Fabi) arrived. It was also the first time that Gloria and Leo left the hostel for an extended period of time with me in charge. It was great. I parked myself on the couch, watched movies on TV, and talked to Fabi about her activity options. She studied Linguistics during 6 years in Australia and is now teaching English at a University in Santiago. Of course we had plenty to talk about. I told her about Ojos del Caburgua (which she wanted to see today) and Parque Huerquehue (which she wanted to see tomorrow). She didn't really want to go alone, so I said I would ask Gloria if I could accompany her, which would benefit both of us.
This morning at breakfast, 2 more girls arrived (Maria from Switzerland and Ami from Chile). They had no plans, so they easily agreed to the Ojos del Caburgua trip. Gloria was happy to have me go with the three women ("¡Claro que sí!"), but this time we took the public bus instead of bikes. We got dropped off along the highway with one other woman (Paula from Spain), who quickly became a friend. She even asked about what hostel we were from because she was considering changing, and I was clever enough to give her a business card that I had stashed in my guidebook as a bookmark. We hiked into a different entrance (from when I biked there), and got to the falls from behind and on the other side of the river. As nice as the views were, they were nothing compared to what I had seen with the other group.


If we wanted to get to the other (better) side, we were told we would have to walk back to the highway, then hike for an hour, repay a fee at the other entrance, and hike back in. Mara to the rescue! I found a cutty path above one of the lookouts and managed to cross the river on sticks and stones, wearing cowboy boots. Then I went back to fetch the others. They looked at me like I was nuts but followed their trusty leader anyways. I knew my way back to the main lookouts on the other side of the river, and they realized how silly it would have been to come and not see the REAL Ojos del Caburgua. I was beaming.


After fotoshoots, we walked back to our "bridge", crossed the river, hiked back to the highway, then waited for a bus back to Pucón. While waiting, we saw a sign for a Mapuche Reservation that offered lunch. Sold. We walked 200m, then found out it was being redecorated/reconstructed, but the woman running the place offered to have her son drive us to another spot to eat empenadas. Yum. After, we waited for the bus again, but a stranger convinced us to walk 6km in the opposite direction to Lago Caburgua. We passed a renegade pig and many beautiful cabins and eventually arrived at the huge lake.



We took a brief break to absorb the tranquilty before finally boarding the bus towards Pucón. Because the girls wanted to go to Huerquehue, I told them they should go rent snowshoes, so I brought them to Aguaventura, where we learned it is supposed to snow and rain all day tomorrow. Hopefully, when I make them breakfast (cafecita y páncita con mantequilla, queso, jamón, y mermelada), they will decide to go to Termas instead and I can go with them. I could use a soak in the hotsprings. Ha, as if my life is hard.
Tonight, I finally went out for drinks in town. So pleased. I had girls to get dressed up with and go out with and talk to strangers with. I will definitely be going back to Mama's y Tapa's, partly because they have actual ESPN, not Tenis/Fútbol 24/7! Woohoo Monday Night Football, and hopefully some clutch baseball games! And, Mexican food there is 20% off. Yeeeeee! Things are swell.