Pucón: Day 1

People had told us that when we arrived in Pucón there would be people at the bus station asking us to stay at their hostels so we didn’t make any reservations beforehand. There was only one guy that approached us who owned a hostel right next to the bus station so we stayed there for $10 a night. Again, I was disillusioned by my hostel experience. It was more like we were living in a normal house - a bed and breakfast without the breakfast. We shared rooms with one or two other people from our group and had access to the kitchen, living room area, internet, etc.

Some of the girls in front of the hostel with the volcano in the background.

We didn’t want to waste any time in Pucón so the same morning we headed to a tourist agency that someone from our university had recommended. I was starving (as always) so Amanda and I took a little detour to a restaurant/bakery by the tourist agency. They were just pulling out a huge tray of freshly made crossaints from the oven, so we each got one. I can’t even begin to explain how good these crossaints were. They were the best crossaints ever. Let’s just say Amanda and I returned to the bakery frequently during our weekend in Pucón – I don’t even want to think about how much buttery goodness I consumed.

After discovering the crossaints, we rejoined our group at the tourist agency. Five of us decided to go whitewater rafting and the other three decided to go on a mountain hike. I was with the rafting crew. If I didn’t have an insane love of rafting, I probably wouldn’t have gone because the water temperature was not exactly ideal. Luckily they gave us wetsuits that were semi-insulative. When we got to the river by van, they gave of us our wetsuits and we were all looking around for the bathrooms to change in. There weren’t any. They expected us to change in the van, so we were all half naked in a van in the middle of nowhere attempting to slide into sticky wetsuits. It was funny at the time.

Sporting the cool wetsuits.

The rapids were really good that day and the guide said some were nearly class IV. It was a little unpleasant when we crashed into huge waves and subzero water splashed down our wetsuits, but it was worth it. The scenery was stunning and I found myself staring off at mountains or cows grazing during when I should have been actually paddling. It was the first rafting experience for three of the people in my group. They were really hesitant to go initially but I finally convinced them after listing my positive rafting experiences during which, I assured them, no one died or was fatally injured. Afterwards, they wanted to go back and do it again. We all had a great time!