Visit from Home

With Bernd on the Top of Volcano Villarica

Soon after we had come back from San Martìn de los Andes, Bernd, a friend of mine which I know from my studies at Leoben university, came to spend his holidays in Chile and stayed in Pucòn for about ten days. It was a great pleasure for me to meet a friend from home, speaking Austrian dialect and warming up old stories of student times. Weather had been unsettled the first days but then it changed to sunny, warm summer weather so we could do some nice things together. Of course we had been on the river doing rafting as well as hydrospeed. (This is to swim down the river in a thick neoprene suit, with fins and a kind of bodyboard.) Doing the hydrospeed Bernd had to serve me as a guinea pig because I was practicing for the exam to become a hydrospeedguide which took place a few days later. We made a tour of the region trying to visit a classical open air concert organized by an Austrian tenor living close to Pucòn. Unfortunately we just could leave Pucòn in the later afternoon and when we arrived there the concert had already been over. Obviously they had given us the wrong time of its beginning. Nevertheless we had a nice trip through the lovely landscape and were recompensed with an amazing sunset over 'Calafquèn Lake'. One evening we had a delicious asado at our house and highlight of the visit for sure was climbing active volcano 'Villarica' (2847m above sea level) just out of Pucòn. The first day we tried it we already could see the top from the starting point of the tour but could not ascend because wind was blowing all the smoke of the crater right into the ascending route. So we had to turn back to Pucòn and that for did canyoning that day. The next day we had been lucky and could make it up to the top. Over there we made a turn around the whole crater with its diameter of 200m so we had an amazing 360 degrees panoramic view over all the surrounding landscape with its numerous volcanoes, lakes, mountains and glaciers. Like the first time when I climbed that mountain again it was quite an impressive experience to stand on the top of an active volcano looking into the crater and thus inside the Earth. The funniest thing about the whole event is going down what you are doing sliding on your bottom through the snow.  So we spent some really relaxing and amusing days and to be true I got a little sentimental when I left Bernd at the bus station the morning he went back to Santiago.

Anyway their had been things for me to do. I had to practice more for the hydrospeed exam. Which I did but unfortunately without success. On monday I loused it up quite badly. It had been a day on which literally anything went wrong that could go wrong. So far I do not have the official results but if they let me pass I strongly had to doubt the competence of the examiners. Well, so I just will keep going down the river in my rubber boat which isn't that bad neither.

Inès meanwhile opened up the restaurant and I already had some delicious meals over there. So far they do not have cuisine a la càrte but only one or two daily set meals. Their speciality is grilled lamb and they serve a very interesting and unique to Pucòn mix of Chilean, Mapuche and Mediterranean kitchen. Frequency of guests already had been okay and they have quite some reservations for Christmas and New Years Eve. So we are hoping that one works well and with it our shop inside.

So far the latest news from the end of the world. I wish everybody of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Take care, take your time and keep on laughing!!!