Patagonia Run – Púcon, Chile – Day 3

We left our little slice of heaven by the river early in the morning – you can read about it here.

Day 3

We headed South with the town of Púcon as our destination in mind.  We continued down Ruta 4.  I haven’t mentioned it already, but Chile’s main highway is Ruta 4 – and it has quite a bit of tolls.  Overall, by the end of Day 3, we paid a total of $35 USD in tolls.  I do have to give Chile credit; the road was well maintained.

The town of Púcon is near the Villarrica Volcano.  There are nearby cities along the many lakes, all at the base of the volcano.  We made it to the first town of Villarrica.  It is extremely cute, and we debated about staying the night there, but many of the Wild Camping places seemed to be more parking lot related, rather than nature.  We headed to the town of Púcon and did our grocery shopping.  With our small ice chest, we have limited options for cold food – so, more pasta!  We traveled further along to the lake of Caburga and set up camp.  We enjoyed walking along the beach, watching swimmers, and had a view of a different volcano, Lonquimay.  It wasn’t long during our cooking process we were greeted by some local wild – birds, and rats.  Yes… a rat was hungry and was waiting for our leftovers.  As far as we can tell, we were the only ones camping at the beach, and enjoyed the quiet solitude.

As I write this, I realize, we didn’t really get a great picture of the main volcano, Villarrica.  As you may know, such high peaks can create their own weather, and the picture opportunity never really presented itself.  I had read that many people climb the volcano, but it is very weather dependent.  Trips to the top must be with a tour guide unless you are a certified mountaineer.

We left early the next morning with two things on our mind – find a place to stay for Christmas, and cross into Argentina safely.