Lakes Trip - part 1

In Santiago I booked a trip South through the lakes district for 4 nights, linking up with the Navimag ferry which I'd already booked. Otherwise I'd have shot through here on my own and only visited a small fraction of the places, and probably not seen another gringo anywhere.

There were only 7 of us on the bus along with the guide and the driver. 3 Irish girls, one American girl, an Australian guy, English guy and myself. Nick the English guy was monumentally hungover and nearly missed the bus, this kinda set the tone for the whole trip.

The first stop was for tea and empanadas, the next was at a not quite spectacular hydroelectric dam. Then we got to Pichelmu, which was out first overnight stop. This is a big surfing destination, but was a little chilly for such activities, instead we opted for horse riding. It didn't seem like we'd get to go for while, as the whole town was suffering a bit of an out of season shut-down, but late in the day, after a quick pizza and coke break, we heard there were 6 then 5 horses available. Thankfully Nick and Ashton took one for the team and allowed the rest of us to go. It was a rather enjoyable jaunt, especially the trot back along the beach. We even saw a dead penguin, unfortunately my only penguin sighting in Chile so far. Upon our return we then took a trip to a nearby cliff to see the sunset, which wasn't quite happening, and have a little ramble. After some faffing about and watching of crap movies all of us but the Irish headed out for some dinner in a nice little place with a log fire where we met the mayor to be who told us the town was shit and to go to Pucon. Well we did that later but that night many were still suffering from the night before and I was still trying to get my soul into the right time zone so an early night was had. This did not set the tone for things to come.

The next day was a bit of a long drive to Pucon, and unfortunately the good weather left us and it was grey and wet for the rest of the trip. This day we stopped in Santa Cruz to go to a museum set up by Carlos Cardoen, international arms dealer and formerly on the US governments top ten most wanted list. The museum had an amazing and eclectic collection: fossils, Inca gold, figurines giving birth, Nazi memorabilia and formula one cars. That night we got to Pucon but the weather was pretty dire and it didn't seem we would be able to climb the volcano the next day. Had a nice dinner and then headed on to the wonderfully named "mammas y tapas" for some drinks, and some more drinks. We learned that hips don't lie, even our driver Sergios. I got hit by jetlag and had a bit of a grump and left first, though not without stopping for some popcorn and a strange wine and coke combination back at the hostel. This meant I had to miss out on the fun of getting lost and going to the woods at 6am.

Day 3 and I was up early. Eventually everyone got up and the weather was so poor that rafting wasn't even an option. What was left to do in Pucon? Evidently drinking was the only option. We started at brunch, met our friend Pisco (the dog not the drink) and then had some beers back at the hostel, where we adopted Amy Winehouse as out group idol, though we never got as far as the Amy Winehands game. At 5 we were off on a trip to the hot springs. On the way we met our good friend Ron Silver, who'd mysteriously disappeared by the end of the half hour journey, and some extremely dubious photos were taken. The hot springs were great: hot and springy, but unfortunately idiot boy here lost his specs, never to be found again. Hence I ended up wearing by sunglasses for the rest of trip, and till this very day. The have been ungenerously dubbed the paedophile glasses, as paedophiles were sunglasses at night, clearly, obviously, definitely. Dinner was at a restaurant home to massive burgers and some great singalonga tv. Then it was back to Mammas y Tapas again where we got to witness the awesome power of the "smoke machine". Doesn't work for lesbians though. This night went on quite a bit despite the early start and what can I say, it was fun!

To be continued...