4 towns in 4 days

Since Sarah last updated, we have been on a whirlwind tour of southern/middle Chile. We went through Castro, Puerto Varas, Valdivia and we are now in Pucon after 4 days straight of sightseeing and then hopping on a bus.

Castro, it is indeed beautiful, even if it is overcast. The reason we couldn't see the church before Sarah's entry was a big fundraiser for disabled children that was being held all over Chile. To raise money, they had a block long hotdog that they sold pieces of. The hot dog itself wasn't that long, but with a contraption made of 2x4s and a ton of baguettes, hot dogs, avocado, tomato and mayonnaise, the hot dog was really really long. We eventually did see the church and it was awesome, completely made of wood and very provincial or country. We also took a bus out to another town to check out that wooden church and that was pretty cool. It was an adventure since we took the local buses with very vague directions and no idea how to get around the town that we were going to. But it was fun and Castro was a nice little town.

Puerto Varas, a couple hours away from Castro and really close to Puerto Montt, this town is a big tourist draw for excursions on the lake and up Volcano Osorno. We spent the day walking around, hanging out by the beach, trying to find old crumbling mansions (with limited success). It it a very cute town that takes all of 20 minutes to navigate every block in the center. The church there is a copy of a church in germany, fairly exact except for the vivid blue ceiling on the inside. Since we weren't going to climb this Volcano, we went to Valdivia the next morning.

Valdivia is a university town that is awesome. First of all, we found the best hospedaje ever. This old mansion is falling down and looks like a haunted house, but you can rent rooms there. It has a creaky metal gate, crumbling stone steps, none of the floors in the house are level, it is fantastic. Second, down at the riverfront market there are a ton of sealions hanging out looking for handouts from the fishermen. They make strange noises and flop around. We went exploring looking for a fort, but we were unable to find it. Apparently there are a bunch of forts just outside of town that the Spanish built back in the early 1700s. I would like to spend more time in Valdivia later.

Finally, Pucon. This town is a very touristy town that, like Puerto Varas, is an excursion jump-off point. We are actually staying two nights here so we were able to do something today. The choices were endless from white-water rafting, kayaking, and canoeing to ziplining to volcano climbing. So we decided to climb Volcano Villarica. The volcano is active and smoking. However, we found out at the top that the smoke is pretty toxic, so while we stood at the edge of the crater, we weren't able to see very much because it stung the eyes and burned the throat. The climb itself was fairly difficult (for us who have never done this before) since it is all through snow and you have to carry a lot of equipment on your back including snowpants and jacket for when it gets windy at the top, crampons in case the path is too icy, an icepick, lots of food and water, a helmet, and other assorted odds and ends. We went at a pretty slow pace with well timed breaks, so it was very nice and then the best part was that we slid down from the top on our butts. We strapped some special slidy pants on over our snowpants and just took off. At various points, Sarah and I both went head over heels but it was a blast. I would climb up again just to slide back down.

We are now recovering from our climb and slide with various sore muscles and bruises here and there. Tomorrow we go on to Temuco on our journey up to Santiago to meet the parents in less than 10 days.