Pucon is famous for the great water and general outdoor sports. The area is full of rivers, volcanos and hot springs.
We arrived in the afternoon and spend the day browsing through hundreds of agencies and select the activities we wanted.
Hot springs - Termas Geometricas
The area is full of hot springs due to many active volcanos in the area. We chosen the one that were designed by a "chilean" artist, they are fitted in the canyon in sort of jungle where due to humidity the plants develop very well. The designed red passages were endless letting us to stop at any of the natural pools. The pools were at various temperatures from 36C to 42C built from a black volcanic stone looked amazing. We tried them all including the one at above 40C were it is impossible to stay more than few minutes.
There were some natural waterfalls with cold water of 8C so we challenged each other to get under it... That was cold!
Volcano trek - Villarica
The trek started at 6:30 am where we got equiped: jacket and trousers for outddoor trek, helmets, gaiters, crampones, piolets and toboggans.
We started the ascent from 1400m of altitude, we walked up about 1000m until we reached the snow and had to put on the crampons. The peak of the crater is at c3000m, once on top we got these horrible smells of gases coming from the inside of the earth, primarily soufre.
The Villarica volcan is still active and last eruption with lava was in 1994 but in 2010 the lave in the crater increased but didnt explode outside the crater.
Anecdote: even at the top, the stones are all nicely warm
The descent is made easier as we slide on our bum downhill.
Weronika had her first ever experience in river rafting! Francois is an experienced, his last rafting was on his stag-do in Chamonix, France!
We were 6 in a boat and of course we volunterred to be the first couple in the boat meaning getting most impact of the drop and getting seriously wet. The river was clasified as class IV+. On one spot the drop was a class VI so we had to leave the boat and either jump or walk it, of course we jumped it... 4m height. That was cool, but the water of 6 C was cold on shoulders where we didnt have the wetsuit. For the last bit we jumped into the river to be drafted by the current, that was safe class I.
Anecdote: After El Chaltén we went to San Martin de los Andes where we spent a night in a dormitory. We didn't do anything fun there as we decided to plan the next steps of our trip and book some necessary flights as an exit from South America.
Coach Pucón - Santiago 777km, 9.5hrs