Verdeta Journey

Day 46 6:30 office 7:00 left 8:00 lift  12:00 top 15:00 left back 16:00 back and beer  16:30 in hostel, shower 17:00 meal next door 5000 clp per two incl drinks 17:30 sleep 20:00 wake up 21:00 bus to Los Pozones 22:00 thermals  24:00 bus back 01:00 Pucon 

Day 45 We had every ready from the evening, so even we had to get up at 5:30am, it went well and at 6:10am we were already in Pucon Aventura office waiting for instructions.  For the volcano, we only needed to bring comfortable sports clothes, food and water.  Notes: Got there, came back, bus ticket check if we can change, coffee, hostel check if we can change, added one more night, went to change bus, waited for agency to open, full for the next day, cannot return money yet, another agency (Florencia), another agency Trancura holding places, still no money back, another agency Politur booked with deposit 70000 (price 100k pp including los pozones thermas), gift for Annie, kuchen through hostel owner, strawberries 1k per kg, smoothie with milk, went for money, paid the difference, dinner with Annie, La Manga. 

44th Day We decided to not do much as we are going to the volcano tomorrow. Got not a cheapest breakfast in La something and then walked to the beach. Met few nice blocks of flats looking as expensive properties and then finally ended up on a beach.  The Villarrica lake has two beaches in Pucon. The main one is parallel with O’Higgins street. It’s black “sand” beach. The sand is quite gross and gets hot under the direct sun. The beach is not so busy, few people sunbathing close to the lake and mainly kinds in the water. We tried our feet and the lake was cold.  It was lazy day, walked through the town, went to nice and big supermarket Lider and then cooked pasta for dinner in the evening. We also had to go to try on shoes and then prepared breakfast and lunch for tomorrow’s excursion to the volcano. Back in Prague, we bought shoes which are compatible with crampons, so we preferred to use our shoes than theirs. 

Day 43 Quite slow morning, backpacks ready and we have to walk to the other side of the town to try to hitchhike to Pucon. We got on Avenida Gramado (which is joining Ruta 5 to north) and just right behind the railway we started hitchhiking. It wasn’t even 5 minutes and around 11:30am someone in very nice truck Ford F-something stopped.  Pelipe is really nice and welcoming businessman who established his company about 25 year ago. He started with his wife from scratch and now they have around 100 employees and successful business in salmon industry. He speaks English and he is going to Pucon! I think we got really lucky. Pelipe dropped us at a hostal he got recommended by his friend on the way to Pucon and I asked him for his number to buy him beer in the evening because he saved us a lot of hassle getting to Pucon.  The recommended hostal was unfortunately full so we started going one by one, trying to find a room with private bathroom for reasonable price. I had...

We had our yoghurts for breakfast in our room and the walked to the town centre. Did few photos around the lake and the went up the hill to park and viewpoint. Not many people up there, it’s sunny and feels nice. The park works as a mountain bike park too.   Once we reached the top, I checked maps.me where else we can go, as it was still early. I found that about 3km away is a Chester Brewery. That could be a good walk with beer at the end, no? We both agreed and wanted to descend the hill to a footpath near the railway. Unfortunately we took a wrong misleading paths down the hill and reached just bush and very steep downhill we couldn’t pass. Took us a while to get to the park entrance and we needed some water (forgot in the hostel). The nearest shop/coffee is on the same street and water costed 1500 pesos. Then seemed shorter to walk on the road then get back to the footpath. The only issue is that we are not sure if we can get there using the road I can see on the map. Th...

Surprisingly good breakfast in this hostel Macho. And around 10am heading back to Castro to return the car. We rented with full to full tank, so having to fill up near the Hostal Cordillera (the rental place). There is Copec petrol station. Our first in South America, so I’m not sure how it works here. As in different countries is the system different too. Here in Copec, there are Copec employees and they ask what type and how much petrol you want. I just said Super 95 and full. Then they the guy asked me to open the fuel tank and he ensured me that the display on the pump shows zeros. Then he started filling the petrol in and in a meantime he washed the rear window. I told him that it is not necessary as this is not my car and he just replied: “Es Copec service”. Once the tank was full, he showed me how much I need to pay and I said by card. Right next to the pump is a card payment terminal where I did the payment with the guy. It was quite nice. I wish this to be in the UK or in the...

Late morning seems to be a rule last few weeks. It changes only when we have to get on a bus early morning. This day, we had a breakfast downstairs in our Hospedaje. Very simple as always when included in the accommodation. Bread and butter and some jam. There is someone else having breakfast with us, tall white man, clearly not Chilean. He starts speaking with us and we find out that we have a similar goal what to see here. His name is Patrik. Hes is from California and he is quite nice. So we offer him to go with us by car to the end of the road and then hike together to   Huentemo.   Last maybe 1 or 2 km were pretty rough road and it ended in sand on the wide massive beach. I didn’t want to go on the sand with this tiny car and we asked in a campsite if we can keep the car there. A lady from the campsite house asked for 3000 pesos to park in their garden. It wasn’t really a campsite. It was just a garden of a remote house with a sign saying Estacimiento y Camping....