An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Our last morning - for a while, anyway - of a forced early (8:00!)wake-up. We partook of the meager breakfast offerings, then saddled up in the shadow of the majestic Villarica Volcano which, though snow-capped, was, as usual, emitting a steady plume of steam.
We rode briefly through town, then on the road out until turning onto a dirt road which led up into the mountains. The next two hours or so (about 12km) were some of the most beautiful and perfect biking we could ever hope to experience. The weather was cool, the sun was warm, and the air was wonderfully clear, with only the wispiest swirling clouds in the endless deep blue sky. The views were across valleys and rolling hillsides of lush green fields and forrest. We rode a dirt path that crossed several streams (which made for some fun and wet biking) along the base of some forested steep hills. In the distance were the Andes, but with the aforementioned 8,000ft volcano always towering nearby. Along the way we passed several wooden farmhouses with lots of healthy looking horses, cows and sheep grazing in the strong sun.
We arrived at the Ojos del Carbunga(eyes of Carbunga - the nearby lake), a series of waterfalls so named due to their seeming to emanate from the ground. We lunched on variously-flavored empanadas (chicken, seafood, veggie), which were a tad greasy but quite delicious, really hitting the spot. Then, as Milton was exploring the turquoise-colored lagoon into which three different waterfalls emptied, he began talking with a couple who were also biking. Turns out they’d been traveling together for only a few days after meeting in Bolivia, but both were traveling for a year or so; she’s a 26 year old Australian lawyer taking a year off, and he’s a 23 year old Israeli who just finished his army service and is, evidently like many others, traveling indefinitely.
We ended up biking back to Pucon, Chile with them, getting lots of interesting info on their extensive South American travels (he’s been in S. America for 8 months and, in fact, there are so many Israelis travelling around this region that they found restaurants in Bolivia with menus in hebrew and were staying at a hostel in Pucon owned by Israelis), the Jewish community of Australia, Israeli politics, the rules of netball (she’d recently competed in the Maccabean games playing netball, evidently a big game in the Commonwealth countries; sounded like a cross between basketball and ultimate frisbee) etc.
As we arrived back into Pucon around 4:00(after taking a somewhat less scenic, but quicker route along the paved road; with Wendy having done a kick-ass job on a full day of biking), the town was really hopping — many crowded outdoor cafes, dozens of outfitters working on their rafts and bikes, and all sorts of shops and shoppers. We went back to admire the colorful wood flowers, then went to the hotel to freshen up for our trip back to Santiago, Chile.
We said our good-byes to Berne and Felice, then boarded the van while Aaron drove us the 80 minutes to the Temuco airport. We were somewhat glad to be free of group dynamics, but will miss the effusive and fascinating Berne who really made our trip to the Volcano and Lake country so special. A nice drive through green farmlands with their omnipresent grazing animals, in the bright sunshine of early evening. We hung out at the airport enjoying a delicious Magnum ice-cream bar, but were sure to board promptly, as we’ve noticed the Chileans have a habit of departing early and this flight was no exception as we were taxiing down the runway about 8 minutes before our scheduled departure time! The flight was fine, and we then spent 45 minutes weaving through the Santiago saturday night congestion before arriving back at the good, old Torremayor, where we checked into our palatial suite, given to us to make up for screwing us out of it the last time we were here.
Tomorrow we leave Chile, just when we were beginning to learn how to deal with their particular style of service (though fortunately we’ll soon be returning). The answer to most requests is “no”, “not available” “we don’t have that”, but if one is insistent, one almost always gets whatever is wanted after the second or third request.