Season Preparations and Some Short Trips

Lake Neltume

Meanwhile spring has turned into summer and as always Inés and I have not been lazy. The Cafeteria is ready to use, the garden does not look like a construction place anymore but like a real garden and sun is shining on everything with its best smile. What we had to do now is some promotion that people will know about our place and find it as well. So Inés went to Santiago to let some flyers be printed. I stayed at home meanwhile organizing everything here and learning a lot with the kids for their last exams in school which will end in one more week. It seems we have not done this that bad because as it looks like they all will have quite good marks this year. It was good fun being at home with them alone allowing me to train my Spanish skills and learn for example about Chilean history. So it was a kind of win-win situation. Nevertheless I had been quite lucky when Inés finally came back. I definitely needed some rest and relaxation then, which I found in various ways. Once I went as a driver for my rafting company with tourists to some hot springs which is a nice thing because it gives me the opportunity to take a relaxing bath and even get payed for it.

Another day I took a bus and went for two days to the southern side of the Villarrica Volcano to a small village called Conaripe on the shore of Lake Calafquén. It is a nice remote village with a big black beach and  at this time of the year almost deserted. I spent some time on the beach reading (it is still too cold for taking a bath - at least for myself although you can already see some brave Chileans in the water), walked around the village, ate good plain fare and ejoyed the tranquility of the place. The next day I took a bus to the Pellaifa Lake and hot springs. A place which I have not known so far. It was a journey of an hour over a gravel road that led over a small mountain pass into a lovely green valley surrounded by already high peaks of the Andes. The hot springs had just been open because I came there that day. Apart from me there had just been a father with his daughter. So the three of us had the whole termal complex - four pools of different water temperatures - for our own. The only sound apart from the wind and some birds singing in the trees came from the owner of the hot springs who was still constructing a bungalow for the high season. I spent the whole day over there and at the close lake which is embedded in between green hills. Hundreds of dead tree trunks jutting out of the water surface of the lake give it an ancient, mystic touch which was topped by various llamas browsing on the shore. In the evening I took the bus back to Pucón not without it breaking down so that I had to change the bus to finally get home.

Another day I borrowed a motorcycle of a friend to make a day trip to another corner of the country so far unknown to me. Two of our children had been with their school band at a band meeting in the small town of Panguipulli at the lake of the same name. As a surprise for them I went there to watch them. For the band meeting took place in the afternoon I had the whole morning to ride around. I started early morning towards Conaripe and Pellaifa again but then kept on going even deeper into the Andes towards Neltume. It is an amazing gravel road over there, more a cart track than a road at some parts, winding through an even more spectacular landscape. At the end of it you come to the south side of Lake Panguipulli where from a newly built asphalt road meanders in great curves along the lake without any traffic seen on it. It is a real motorcyclist's paradise giving you tremendous views of the lake and the mountains surmounted by the impressing massif of Volcano Choshuenco. What a ride! Finally I came with quite a high level of adrenalin in my blood to Panguipulli on the lakes northern shore right in time to watch Amanda and Adriano defiling with their band. The expression on their faces when they suddenly saw me there within the spectators was quite surprised.

I had lunch in a small restaurant in Panguipulli and then rode back to Pucón over some more unknown roads enjoying countless great views. Someday -better sooner than later - I will have to buy me a motorcycle to be able to start on such trips whenever I want to. There are so many wonderful roads over here and because many of them are still gravel roads it is a unique chance to train ones driving skills.

So I can start into the high season quite relaxed. I am already looking forward to nice times on the river even more because last week came my friend Bernhard from Austria who, like last year, will spend the summer here in Pucón.

But first it is up to me now promoting our cafeteria in all the hotels, hostels and tour operators in town that it will be a success as well.