Pucón


It’s raining worse than cats and dogs here in Pucón (in Chile), but the weather did us the favor of waiting until we were on our way home before it got really nasty. Today has been quite the adventure!

Last night I cooked myself dinner at the hostel in San Martín de los Andes. It ended up being terrible, because I didn’t have any spices and I misread the label at the grocery store. So what I thought was going to be delicious pasta with marinara sauce ended up being canned tomatoes and rubbery noodles. Mmm mmm good!! It was actually a really interesting experience, because the kitchen was really busy, but no one else was alone. And no one else spoke English. Attempting a social spanish conversation with another solo traveller is one thing, but thrusting myself head-long into a group of rapidly-speaking Argentinians is entirely another! As a result, I’m getting a lot of alone time by default. It’s good though, because that’s something I was expecting out of this trip. It’s nice to feel comfortable being alone and friend-less in a big group of strangers.

Speaking of my Spanish, though, it’s getting SO much better. I’m not picking up vocab near as quickly as I did in Mexico, but that’s because I’m not trying as hard as I did in Mexico. I’m sure if I looked up every word I didn’t know in the dictionary (I haven’t even cracked mine since I’ve been here!  ) and if I asked more questions about words and phrases, I’d be pro already. Probably I will have an even easier time once I leave Argentina/Chile. The accents here are among the most notable in the Spanish world. Imagine teaching American English to someone that speaks Chinese as their first language and then sending them to England or Scotland. The accent is different, the vocab is different, thank god the nouns are mostly the same even though they’re often used differently. My biggest problem so far has been remembering which type of “excuse me” to use. There are three different versions. “Disculpa” means “can I bother you for a moment.” “Permiso” or “conpermiso” means “can you please get out of my way?” “Perdón” means “sorry I was in your way.” Well, the first one that comes to mind when I think, “excuse me” in my head is “permiso.” So, the rapid-fire translation that comes out when I wasn’t paying attention and am about to slam into someone is “can you get out of my way, please?” instead of “sorry I was in your way.” Oops!

Anyway, so this morning at 5:00, I rolled about of bed and got ready to trek through town to the bus station to catch the 6:00 bus from San Martín in Argentina to Pucón in Chile. Sure enough, the gang of the brits, canadians, and the american were there, too. We ended up being on different bus lines, though, so I actually haven’t seen them since the station. Part of the reason is because the guy that sat next to me on the bus, Dan from Israel, is travelling by himself, too. He’s looking to do the same things I am, and I would rather hook up with another lone traveller than bust in on a group of six guys that have already been travelling together for a week. Especially when one of the six is such a huge drag. So, I’ve been hanging out with Dan ever since the bus. He’s super nice, really respectful, and I’m totally comfortable around him. Mature, I guess. An ideal travel partner! Alleluia!

Our bus driver came around right after the bus took off and collected all our passports, so of course we were all nervous about whether or not we were ever going to see them again. We didn’t get too far out of town before the road was no longer paved. I am realizing that the U.S. actually has an incredible highway system. Here, it is not at all uncommon for roads between places like Gillette and Wright/Moorcroft (or Lowell and Oakridge for you Oregon types) to be unpaved. And they’re just as frequently travelled, if not more travelled than the U.S. routes I mentioned. So, we bumped along this gravel/dirt road for about three hours before we arrived at the customs office, which was really just a little cabin in the mountains along the dirt road (The Andes are on the border between Argentina and Chile.) I felt like I was on a bus headed for summer camp the whole time. Well, turns out they collected our passports to compile a list to expedite the process when we arrived at customs. We got there at about 9 am. They proceeded to herd us all off the bus and into the cabin where we stood in front of two officers as the called us up to the front of the room, one by one, stamped our passports. By 10:00 we were back on the bus and headed down the road. Or so we thought.

Not two minutes later, the bus stops at another cabin. Then it dawns on us that the previous cabin wasn’t customs for Chile. It was the Argentinian departure office. Chile is known for being thorough with customs, so they took all the bags off the bus, made everyone bring all their stuff in the building, searched every single bag, and then reloaded the bus. We were counting our blessings by the time 11:30 rolled around and we were finally headed off down the Chilean side of the gravel road.

The mountains were, of course, spectacular. It’s fall here, so the hill are just blazing with red and orange and yellow. (Mom, you would LOVE it!) And there are more monkey puzzle trees than you can shake a stick at. The valleys are all very small and very dramatic. And it takes forever to cross the Andes because of the topography. You switchback all the way up a mountain and down the other side. Then you do three or five or ten more like it until you finally get through. Here, there’s no such thing as “the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.”

We finally arrived in Pucón around 1:30. Dan and I had both had a specific hostel recommended to us by other travellers. However, the thing is, it’s new. So not a single Pucón native could tell us where to go, and everyone we did ask wanted to tell us where we should stay instead. Finally we found a guy at a bike shop who had a  vague  idea of the hostel’s location. So, we went trekking off through town, walked one end to another without finding it. The nice thing is, Pucón is exactly the kind of place I had in mind when I said I wanted a town small enough to learn the layout in 5 min. So one end of town to the other doesn’t take all that long. We never found the recommended place, and so settled on the first place we came to. It’s a hospedaje instead of a hostel, which means it’s owned by a family that also lives in the house. It’s nice to be in a house instead of a hotel-ish environment. Dan and I have our own room, which is great because we can leave our stuff laying everywhere. Usually, at hostels, you live out of a locker and have to keep it all inside.

After we got unpacked, we went to get Chilean money so we’d be able to pay. The first ATM I tried to use made a noise like it was giving me money, and then said “Thank you for using Redbanc,” but it never gave me any money. So I’m still watching my wells fargo account like a hawk to make sure some absurd amount of money hasn’t disappeared out of there. We also walked down to the lake, which was gorgeous… very storybook-like. Then we searched tourism agencies to find the cheapest and best trip up the volcano (you have to have a guide).

A view of Villarica (the volcano) from Pucón

A view of Villarica (the volcano) from Pucón

We bought groceries for dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dinner and breakfast again all for $20! We’re doing a really good job as far as food budget goes. Dinner was delicious. Dan made steaks and some awesome pasta, and this purple cabbage salad that I thought was going to be terrible, but ended up being absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to make it for myself when I get home! I guess dinner is what I get in exchange for doing all the Spanish communicating that we need to do.

After dinner we decided that since we couldn’t climb the volcano for another day at least, if at all, we were going to biking. So we found me some nylon pants, since all I have is a pair of jeans and skin tight long underwear. We went back down to the lake as a storm was brewing, which was SUPER cool. The clouds were almost black. It was amazing.

That’s all for today!



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