Dia 24 Termas de Pozones

I woke up after a 7 hour nap today and wearily wandered downstairs for an infusion of coffee.  Surprisingly, not very sore from my efforts yesterday (and proud of that). 

Dia 16 Pucon

Dia 15 Casa de Tracy Y Lance

Beautiful house in the country side with a super cute guest cabin "the womb" and a stupendous 3-volcano view.  They built the house themselves and have tremendous gardens.  After a little siesta, I took a walk up the road.  They are literally 10 minutes from Parque Nacional Villarica.  This is a photo taken from the road.  Note the plume of smoke emanating from the volcano.

Tracy hosted a women's solstice celebration and I got to meet 12-15 of her friends, mainly ex pats.  What a great first day in Chile!

Dia 15 Hacia Pucon

I set my alarm for the wrong time and almost missed the bus to Pucon!  The bus ride is supposedly 4 hours, but most of that time is spent crossing the border.  I did manage to get all my climbing food across into Chile.

The hardest part of the day was driving past el Volcan Lanin.  It is the highest point in the area and straddles the border between Argentina and Chile.  It is so large at 3776 meters, that it occupied much of the landscape during the drive.  Hence, my eyes were peeled on the window.  It is generally done as a 2-day climb because it is hard to get there early enough to do it in one as it is over 8000' of elevation gain.  Nonetheless, because it is there, I must go back and climb it.

Once the bus crossed the border and descended to the Chilean side, things were much lusher and greener.  It has a completely different look and feel than the rain-shadowed eastern side.  The bus driver was kind enough to drop me off at the base of Tracy's road which is 20 min from Pucon.  Problem was that the bus was one hour late, hence Tracy wasn't there to drive me the 4km up the gravel road. After waiting 5 min, I decided to start hoofing it.  It was tricky wheeling my luggage over the rocky road, but I chocked it up to a training opportunity.  I was about to change into shorts and hide my duffel in the bushes when Lance, Tracy's husband showed up.

Dia 14 Ruta de Siete Lagos

Today I left Bariloche and headed northward to catch the bus to Pucon.  As luck would have it, Dick was planing to go fishing near Junin de los Andes, so I was spared the bus for that leg of the 2-day journey.  Plus Dick indulged me by taking the scenic route called Ruta de Siete Lagos.  The drive was beautiful and went through the touristy, well-manicured towns of Villa la Angostura and San Martin de los Andes.


We spent the night in Junin, which resembles an old western town.  It was hot, dry, and dusty.  Surprisingly, it is the fly-fishing capital of the Andes which is evidenced by the trout-shaped street signs.  The second photo is of a Auraucaria Tree (Monkey Puzzle tree) decorated with xmas lights and ornaments.