Pucon: My first trip traveling alone
Traveling is always an adventure, no matter where you go. But when the adventure is all alone, it adds a new element of excitement.
After arriving in Santiago and spending a weekend getting back into the swing of things, I booked an overnight long bus ride back to the South of Chile. This time to Pucon, a tourist attraction city near great volcanoes and wonderful lakes. I had heard great things about it so I really needed to check it out on my own.
The bus ride was long, but I had booked the “cama” seat, which means “bed” in Spanish, and it practically was one. There was a snorer just a few rows behind me and I was NOT happy. But it turns out that with enough reading and passing hours, I can fall asleep still. I got to my hostel around 9:00am the next morning, not quite fully rested. When I arrived at my booked hostel, the people inside welcomed me and helped me set up my tour for the next day. They really were wonderful and oh so helpful!! Still a little out of it, I laid down for some much-needed Zzz’s.
In the afternoon around 1:00pm, I headed out to try to see the waterfall outside of town that I had been recommended to see. On my way out the door, one of the girls at the hostel said they’d been planning on hiking the same way, so I asked if I could tag along. Turns out the whole crew from the hostel ended up joining us, which made things so much more enjoyable, I think. We got to a fork in the path and didn’t know exactly which way was correct. We ended up following the path too far and took a steep, slippery and kinda dangerous tree alley towards the river. At that point we’d realized we were too far down the river and needed to back track. At this point, I was SO tired and SO wet and SO ready to be done, but didn’t know exactly how I’d get back on my own. So I trekked on. We eventually found the not-so-clearly-marked original path and made it down the short run towards the waterfall. I really wish that I could say that the view of this waterfall was worth it…but I’ve seen better. Anywho, so we made it back to the road where we started our hike and realized that since we’d taken a cab close to the start of the path, this may be a LONG walk home. With enough luck, a out-spoken American guy (imagine that) hiking with us flagged down a truck that had an empty cab. With his broken, gringo Spanish he asked if the guy would give us a ride to town. I figured it was kinda dangerous, but willing to take the chance. The guy dropped us off just a block from our hostel even. Thank you Mr. Nice Chilean Guy!!
By the time we reached our hostel again around 6:00pm, we were all totally drenched, hungry and could use a drink. We decided together that this might be a good night to take a tour to the hot springs in the local area. The guys in the group put together a menu for the evening, cooked and even cleaned up before the tour. Not too bad if you ask me. Around 8:00pm we headed out on our tour of the hot springs with two bottles of wine and 3 chocolate bars to split between the 6 of us. Shortly before midnight, all of the sudden the lights went out throughout the whole hot springs area. GREAT! We slowly made our way back to the bathrooms and had to change and hike up the hill back to the car- all in the dark. My night vision is terrible to begin with, so I was NOT happy about that one.
The next morning I was up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 8:00am for my horse-back riding tour. I had never been horse-back riding before and I have always had a fascination to try. I feel like I was the only one in the world that had never been on a horse, so why not book a tour when I’m traveling alone down south? So I did. They picked me up and we rode about 1.5 hours out-of-town to the house of the man who owns the horse ranch. It seemed a little weird to me at the time because as their only guest I just walked in behind them and they served me tea and refreshments like I was a long-lost friend. After they arranged all of the food for the day, we headed to the barn.
I didn’t really get to meet my horse before they saddled him up and put me on. Oh, and they didn’t exactly give me instructions ahead of time on how to ride them either. I climbed up onto a tree stump and they told me to get on like how you get on a bike. Ok, I’ve done that before. Well…they didn’t tell me that if you nudge the horse too much in the belly/side that he would take off. Oops!! My horse starts riding away on the trail with me on it. So not knowing what I was supposed to be doing, I yanked the reins back and forth, at which point the horse starts doing circles to the left, then to back the right. I have no idea how to make him stop and I’m starting to panicked at this point. Turns out they are really sensitive to the reins and how you direct the rope. Would have been good to know!
It took me a while to really get a good grip on the reign and on how to command the horse to do what I wanted him to do. After about an hour and trying to leash my horse to another, I finally felt like I was doing the directing myself. The rest of the riding day was cake. And the views of this valley area were absolutely to die for!!! I wish I could show in pictures what I mean, but our camera was stolen the weekend after (story to follow). The fall colors were sprinkled all around the rolling hills and there was a certain cloudy mist that shaded in the blank space. Imagine your favorite fall day that has just a little bit of moisture….then add a horse, some hot spring pools, rolling hills into larger mountain valleys and a sense of new independence and new adventure….that’s how it felt.
We stopped for lunch shortly after 1:00pm when it started to down pour on us and the horses. Great timing, huh? There was a small cabin heated by a log stove and fire where we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon. We had sandwiches, fresh homemade bread, chocolate, red wine and I even tried Mate for the first time. Mate is a drink that is fairly popular in the southern regions of South America- especially Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Chile. It’s a form of tea where they put in the herb without the tea bags, add water and drink out of a slated straw that keeps the herbs inside the glass. The taste is really bitter and not very delicious- but it helps to keep you warm and something I’ve wanted to try since I’ve seen people drinking it here in South America.
When the rain slowed by a little around 3:30, we headed back to the barn and back on the horses. I was a little nervous to get back on the horse and ride all by myself again…but shortly after I was “back on the saddle” it was like 2nd nature. I felt in tune with the horse, in tune with the natural surroundings and I was really whole-heartedly enjoying my time. Back down the trail and back to the barn we went, a little faster than the pace we went up. The horses didn’t like the rain/cold just as much as us.
Around 6:00pm I finally returned to the hostel, again totally soaked and cold. I talked with some of the friends that I met there from the night before about dinner plans and decided to tag along with the noodle dinner idea and wine once again. We talked and exchanged travel stories all night, and I got to share with them my experiences of my first time on a horse and how that felt.
Friday morning I woke up with enough time to get my final things packed and out the door by 9:20. My bus left around 9:45am. What I didn’t realize about the bus ride that I had booked for my return trip to Santiago was that unlike my trip from Stgo to Pucon, it was NOT direct. GRRRR! What I thought was supposed to be a 9 hour bus ride ended up turning into 13!!! I had planned on arriving back home in Santiago at 6:00pm, and I didn’t get home until after 10:00pm!! I was LIVID!! But when you’re at the mercy of a bus company to get you home, not much to do about it. So I slept it off.
Even with that slight hiccup, overall the trip was AMAZING!! Totally liberating, exciting, a little scary and just plain old fun!!
the 13 hour bus ride back home. BUMMER!!
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