Pucón and Valdivia

This past weekend I went to Pucón and Valdivia, two cities in the Lake District of Chile.  Pucón is famous for its Villarica volcano, which tourists can climb on an intense 12-hour hike.  However, we happened to go during one of the rainiest weekends in Pucón, so no company would allow for us to hike the volcano.  We were disappointed, but we filled up our 2 days there with other activities, like zip lining and lots of hot springs.  The Lake District feels like a complete other world compared to Santiago... the scenery feels very pure and untouched, and everything is super green.

Ziplining scenery:

Waterfall tours:

Hot springs:

All in all, Pucón was super beautiful and reminded me a lot of Alaska or northern Washington.  It was disappointing that we weren't able to climb the volcano but we ended up filling our time with other activities.

After spending 2 days in Pucón, we headed over to Valdivia, which is a 3-hour bus ride to the west.  The weather cleared up in Valdivia so it was amazing!  Valdivia is surrounded by rivers in northern Chilean Patagonia.  In Valdivia, we took a Calle Calle river tour, a brewery tour, ate lots of sea food (I can check eating half-digested algae off my Chile to-do list), and went hiking along the beach in a neighboring town.

Fish market in Valdivia:

Giant sea lion at the fish market:

River tour:

Las Molinas, a small fishing town about 20 min from Valdivia:

After Valdivia, we took an overnight bus back to Santiago... just in time for my presentation on Tuesday morning!  Que bueno!