Pucon, Parque Huerquehue and Termas Geometricas

To get from Puerto Varas to Pucon we took a 6-hour Cruz del Sur bus to Temuco, then had 5 hours to kill on the outskirts of town before a 2-hour ride to Pucon. The 5-hour break was over lunch so we decided to walk about 20 minutes to an Italian restaurant we’d found online rather than sit on the floor of a bus station eating crisps. They were very surprised to see us show up (the restaurant was empty) and kept asking us how we’d come across it. A few hours later we were full of pizza and pasta and had been chatting to the Italian owners (from Bergamo) in a mix of Spanish and Italian. We even got a handshake and kiss on the way out.

The Pullman ride to Pucon was short and sweet and we arrived in this small backpacker town in the early evening. In the hope that we’d be able to pick up a hire car, we had booked just one night, with a view to driving out to a cabana the next morning for a few more nights. But while we were in the middle of one of our silly hikes near Puerto Varas we got a reply from the car hire place to say that they didn’t have any cars free. So we booked 2 extra nights (at a different accommodation) and didn’t plan to get too comfortable the first night.

The next morning we got a proper coffee in town, did another run to a laundrette, then moved our bags from one hostel to another. It turns out the guy at the reception was from Belgium (Boom) and so the rest went fluently in Flemish. He also explained to us why hotel prices in Chile are never quite what they seem – some prices include a 19% tax which only Chileans have to pay. Foreigners are supposed to be given a reduced rate…but so far that’s not really happening. He also gave us the WiFi password – and even though we were a few hours early – let us sit in the lounge and do some serious planning. We’d already fixed one of our issues – by picking a hostel with a kitchen we planned to cook for the first time in a month and stop eating out at overpriced restaurants. The next was to rethink our transport options. So we spent 2 hours investigating whether we could pick up a car after our stay in Pucon and drive it all the way up to San Pedro de Atacama. We got so close, thinking we’d found a great deal only to then find that in the very small print there was a 900 EUR surcharge for dropping it in a different location. Back to the drawing board. We then resolved to break the rest of our Chile stay into 4 chunks, hiring a car in Talca, La Serena and San Pedro de Atacama, and each time returning the car to the same place before bussing onto the next destination. Santiago and around we’d do without a car. With that settled, we reserved the 3 cars and then realised that most of the day was gone so we’d better cram all of our Pucon activities into the next day. During the planning frenzy it also struck us that there was something missing in our lives – tupperware. So we also spent a fun 30 minutes rummaging about in the messiest Chinese tat shop to find something that would tick the box (ha).

So for our one day in Pucon, we had a carefully worked out plan. We’d get the 8.30am collectivo to Parque Huerquehue, do the Sendero de los Lagos walk, get the 2.10pm bus back (it was the only one that would work), collect our laundry at 5pm and be on a tour to the thermal baths at 5.30pm. The buses worked out just fine – with such a limited schedule we decided to arrive at the station very early but they just kept laying on more buses until everyone who wanted to travel had a seat. The journey cost us 4000 CH$ each return (cheaper than 2 singles) and took about 40 minutes. When the bus arrived, we had to go into the ranger hut but this time the only friendliness was thanking us once we’d paid (7000 CH$ each). Rather than queuing with all the other tourists to get some info, we just set off with a Wikiloc trail.

Unfortunately we never made it to the lakes. We were keeping an eye on the time, knowing that if we missed the 2.10pm bus back our laundrette/baths plan would crumble. But 2.10pm didn’t give us enough time to do the whole trail so at the point where we’d enjoyed the views of Volcan Villarica from a couple of miradors, we turned back. It was a nice forest walk, but we’d have preferred to finish the whole thing rather than sit in our hostel for 2 hours. At 5pm Kim ran down to get the laundry while I reheated some pasta from the newly acquired tupperware, but the laundry wasn’t ready. After explaining that we needed to be on a tour at 5.30pm and that we were leaving Pucon before they opened the next morning, the lady agreed to drop it round to the hostel.

 

The highlight of Pucon for us was without doubt the trip to the Termas Geometricas. We got picked up in a mini van from our hostel and (after collecting a few other people) we drove 2 hours (!) to the site, the last 30 minutes of which was on a dirt track. As it was a tour, the entrance price was included so all we had to do is give over some ID in exchange for towels and padlocks, then make our way to the little cabins to get changed and lock up our stuff. The site has 20 thermal baths with temperatures up to 45 degrees. This was a tad warm even for me. The baths are spread out along 400 metres of boardwalk suspended over a river. The river itself is cold, but the hot water wells up in various places, and this mix is what you get to sit in. The river meanders through a fairly narrow canyon, which is lushly overgrown due to the constant steam coming off the baths. We had around 2.5 hours in the baths and sunset was the best time to come as we could see the place in the daylight, but then when the sun went down the stars came out and we were staring at the milky way. We got back at 1am and despite the bumpy road, everyone (even me) fell asleep on the way back.

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The next morning our appreciation for our hostel went up again as they gave us our laundry (minus a pair of socks – this lavandaria sucked), real coffee, freshly scrambled eggs and even fruit! We left Pucon happy that we’d got something out of it, and boarded a 6-hour bus journey to Talca where we’d be spending the night…in a bus station.