¡Chile!: Week 7: Pucon - Hydrospeed & Volcano Hiking

I could not think of a better weekend getaway to end our time in Santiago - our trip to Pucon was hands-down my favorite weekend of our trip. We took an overnight bus Friday night (10 hours south) and woke up in Pucon early Saturday morning. The town is adorable and I think we all mentioned at different times that we could totally live there. It's a quaint little ski-ish town (think log cabin/stone buildings), surrounded by mountains and sitting right on a lake - an adventure lovers paradise.

[This guy set up shop every day right outside of our hostel]

After a delicious gringo breakfast and a walk around the town, we decided to try out "hydrospeeding" on Saturday afternoon. We were outfitted in wet suits, helmets, booties, and flippers and given these boogie board-esque flotation devices. We jumped in the water, grabbed our boards, and floated down the river towards the rapids (class III) - although it was freeeeeeeezing (being only 60 degrees out of the water, you can imagine our hands and feet went numb pretty quickly), the thrill of going through the rapids made the whole thing totally worthwhile. Everyone had their fair share of flips, 360 spins, duck dives, and I definitely swallowed a LOT of that river.

[The whole crew - waiting to hit the rapids]

[Lovin' life]

Our white water rafting tour guide from our first weekend in Santiago is actually from Pucon and coincidentally was in town Saturday night. After dinner at a local restaurant, we met up with him and his wife for lots of drinks and ended up at a discoteca filled with teenagers - pretty sure we were all at least 10 years older and a foot taller than everyone there - which made for some interesting stories...

[Danilo and his wife - at Mamas y Tapas]

[La Playa - teenager central]

As a result of Saturday evening, Sunday was a very lazy day. We slept late, had a big breakfast, napped, and then spent most of the afternoon laying on the beach at the lake.

[Obsessed.]

[The whole crew - notice the huge mountain the background...]

[The boys at the lake with our new friend - Nia - who worked at our hostel]

We spent Sunday night unwinding at natural hot springs which were an hour or so outside of Pucon.

Woke up supa early (6AM) on Monday to get ready for our big climb up Villarrica - a 9,341ft active, snow-covered volcano that rises above Pucon. (It's actually one of only five volcanoes in the world known to have an active lava lake within it's center.) Regardless, the hike was a BIT more intense than we all bargained for - somehow we joined the fast group and instead of the 5.5-6hrs it was supposed to take to get to the top, we got there in 3.5hrs (I felt like we were sprinting up never-ending snowy steps with our ice picks.) The views from the top were absolutely incredible. The way back down was WAY more fun as they equipped us all with sleds that locked onto the front of our jackets, and we just slid the whole way down the mountain (apparently called glissading - who knew). It was a blast.