Today: rain making up for lost time.
Two days of sun come to an end. In Valdivia I've developed a very personal relationship with the rain. It's one more character in the story. It shows up most days, sometimes just to say hi, sometimes for a longer conversation, often to make sure you're following the dress code (waterproof), and sometimes it just hangs around as fog.
I went skiing last weekend with a group of friends. We took a bus to the city of Pucon, which is sandwiched between Lago Villarrica and the Volcan Villarrica; it's really quite a lovely spot. The bus tickets were surprisingly cheap (about $7 USD for a three hour trip). First thought: I should travel more. Second thought: wait I don't have $7.
We made reservations at a reasonably nice hostel, which turned out to be just about perfect. The best part was a Dutch expat who met us in the busport, showed us the way to the hostel, made
us tea and coffee, offered really good advice on where to go/what to do, and drew us very detailed maps to get to these places.
We found some awesome waterfalls, beautiful lakes, free drinks, and we skiied through some of the worst weather I've been outside in. There were also hot springs.
Also, nearly missed the bus back to Valdivia. Great fun.
Here are some pictures for those interested.
Part of our team getting ready to leave from the Valdivia busport. From left to right: Clark (from Washington), me, and Michael (from Germany).
Lago Caburgua: good picinic spot
Salto El Claro: an hour and a half's walk down a little dirt road and a fifteen minute scramble down a nearly vertical rainforest trail found us at these surprisingly large falls (130+ ft.). Very remote. Very cool.
Some of the landscape near Pucon.
Hostel el Refugio: also home of a cute dog.
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