Pucon

Creative entry in the hostel guidebook. Jaime did herself proud with her own entry but didn't get a picture. Boo! It was great.

Here was a fantastic entry by somebody who must have loved the place.

And this one seems like it must have been an interesting stay.

Paolo and Francesca--best hosts ever. The other lady made the most wonderful granola topped with yogurt and fruit. And they served real coffee!

Beautiful bulletin board, and on the desk next to it is the guestbook. It was a great hostel in lots of ways, but we woke on the third floor with water pouring from our roof both days. Apparently someone on the fourth floor was fuzzy regarding the details of keeping water in the shower.

My ever present delight in ox carts never wanes. These are seriously *big* cows! That one on the street side is almost as tall as the man, and this is usual with what we've seen. Big! They haul logs lots of times.

Jaime's delight in street dogs and dog packs never wanes either. But really, packs of dogs are both ever present and non threatening, which is so unusual except here. They are't skinny and they don't fight with each other either.

On the road up past three volcanoes to the Argentinian border.

 

The Auracunia trees.

 

Volcano Villarrica. Amazing to watch and the town of Pucón is full of adventuresome people climbing to the top.

I said this was so amazing it took my breath away and the picture looks like there are five molecules of steam. Honestly, it looks different in person.

Pretty church in the middle of nowhere.

Definitely this sign is for Chet. Thanks for the prayers!

On our way to Argentina. Volcano on right, Auracania tree in center.

Forest of Auracania trees.

They are very spikey and are painful to touch.

Border station! Nobody was there or they would have stopped us and charged us each $130 (reciprocal fee) but we got to walk across and make it an official crossing on our own. Plus it was a gorgeous drive from Pucón. The last 17 kilometers were gravel on the Chilean side; not sure on the Argentinian side.

 

We were strongly recommended to stop at this Mapuche restaurant on the way. Best Mapuche chef in all of Chile.

We weren't hungry but they cook with the pine nuts from the Auracania trees so we thought we'd just get a little thing with the nuts.

There was a lovely family eating there. The wife spoke several languages, English included, and she recommended the pine nut pudding. Perfect--just what we had in mind. There are no menus but she told the chef what we wanted. It came with sopaipillas and a chili type sauce and a bowl of chopped cilantro, lime, tomatoes and onions. And our pine nut pudding, which looked more like soup. It was a green purée and fairly bland, nothing like what I imagined nuts to be. It was also way more filling than we'd thought. We were so full!

And then she brought out a big salad of celery, onions, lime juice and other things. Wow. Yikes.

Then we waited for the bill.

And *then* she brought out the main dish! It was more like a huge sized serving of a very bland concoction that looked something like hummus baked in the oven. There was no way we could finish that--one serving could have easily fed four people, but we didn't want to be rude and walk out, so I asked for a box. Language skills being what they are, and cultural differences being what they are, here is what that sweet lady did for us:

She put it all in an egg carton for us to take home.