It seems as though we have talked about Pucon every single day we have been here, so we may as well head over there again, hehe. It’s so close and easy to get to, we may as well. Also, Villarrica and Pucon are both quite small towns, so we quickly run out of “novel” things to do. We go to the side of the road to wait for the bus to take us to Villarrica.

Then it is time to just sit and wait for the bus that will take us to Pucon. As we have said, there are many, many things to do in this region of Chile, but you kind of have to get out of the towns to do many of them. There aren’t many big cities in the region, so you’re mostly doing things in nature. To do this, you have to move around a lot. Luckily, there’s a map for that.

After about 30 minutes we’re in Pucon. We walk down to the beach as we did last time we were here, walk along the coast until we reach the same green area we made it to last time. This time we keep going though! We walk through some woods/bushes, often getting slightly lost until we find the path again.

We know we’re on the right path when we make it out of the bushes and see other people. Apparently we have to cross this little bit of water to keep going. My travel partner takes his shoes off… and wow! The sand is boiling hot!! Not comfortable at all. It literally takes less than one second to start burning the bottoms of his feet. It’s because it is volcanic sand, meaning that it is black and absorbs all the heat from the sun’s rays. Luckily we had some waterproof shoes to wear, or else this would have been as far as we would have made it, haha.

We keep on walking, and now that we have waterproof shoes on we walk slightly in the water. It is very refreshing. As we walk we see people scattered here and there along the beach. Some people have boats, some have inflatables, and there are also a few little campsites that reach the water’s edge. We keep walking along the water with a river in mind. We are curious to get to the other side of the river because on the map it looks absolutely gorgeous! We continue walking.

We make it to the end and reach the river’s edge. Behind us is the above beach area, it is absolutely gorgeous! There are a few people here, but nothing compared to the crowd at the main beach back in Pucon. It really feels calm and serene. Well worth the walk here. But, now comes the hard part (apparently). We want to cross this…

We’re 5 kilometres into our walk since reaching Pucon and this is what we run up against, haha. This is the Rio Pucon O Minutue (according to Google). We’re not sure if that “O” is supposed to mean “or” or it means “west,” haha. We assume that it means “or” and that the Minutue may be an indigenous name. All that we know for sure is that this river looks A LOT bigger in real life than it does on the internet. We thought that we would be able to easily cross this river by hopping from island to island… but the water gets quite deep back here. Not ideal for crossing…

At one point my travel partner and his companion were really determined to cross the river, but they weren’t too sure if they would make it… so they left me and their things behind and tried to see how far they could go. They made it to one island… and then another… and then the river opened up even more. It looked shallow enough so they walked out before they realized that it suddenly plunged. Mind you, the current was fast enough to sweep them into the lake if they tried to swim, and it was much too deep to be able to walk through the river… So… this is as far as we made it, haha. If you look at our 360° pictures you will be able to see just how much more there was to walk, haha.

But that’s okay. We relaxed here with the sound of rushing water next to us and it allowed my travel partner to take a few pictures and videos.

We then start walking back the way we came, back towards Pucon. Although our original plan of crossing the river was thwarted, it was still a nice walk and we dipped our feet in a bit, hehe. We make it back to where we had stopped a few days ago and decide to go in for a swim. It was a nice day out, and walking 7 kilometres on hot sand has really warmed us up. At the same time as my travel partner swims, we can also get a few more pictures in the area, hehe.

Then it’s time to start walking again. Remember, we still have to make it back to the main beach, walk up through Pucon (which doesn’t take too long), and then wait for the bus back to Villarrica, so we can’t stay forever. Plus it’s starting to get a bit late in the afternoon…

As we approach the main area of the beach, we can just see a little smoke coming from the top of the volcano.

But that’s it for us today. We go back to Pucon and wait for the bus. They’re small busses that are constantly going back and forth, so we don’t wait too long. Here you can see both the bus station in Pucon and then the one in Villarrica. You can also leave from the one in Villarrica to go to Santiago or other cities, which we will soon find out. This is just another reason we need to get going, tomorrow could be a tiring day, hehe.

And after a short ride, we arrive to Villarrica. (We say “short ride” but these two pictures were taken exactly one hour apart, haha).

But with that you can see that the sun is setting above Villarrica, which means that we have to get hurrying back to pack up our things again. Tomorrow we will leave Villarrica, but we won’t tell you where we will be going just yet. You’ll have to wait and see, but we think you will enjoy it. Good night from Villarrica!